April 24, 2020 UPDATE

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Newsroom, 24.04.2020, 19:59

Covid-19 Romania — Another 15 people infected with the new coronavirus have died in Romania, taking the death toll to 567 — the Strategic Communication Group informed on Friday evening. The victims are 10 men and 5 women aged between 36 and 97. The total number of infections exceeded 10,400. 2,800 patients have recovered. Abroad, as many as 1,500 Romanian citizens have been confirmed with Covid-19 infection, and 70 have died.

IMF— The IMF and the World Trade Organization warned on Friday that the restrictions imposed on exports may be dangerously counterproductive when the world is in the grips of the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. In a joint statement, the two international bodies are calling for caution in imposing such restrictions, expressing their concern with the drop in the funds needed for ensuring imports of sanitary materials and foodstuffs to the countries that need them most. Export restrictions disturb supply chains, affect production and limit access to basic products, the IMF and WTO representatives claim. All over the world 2.7 million people have been infected with Covid-19 and the number of deaths is nearing 200 thousand. Europe reports most of the deaths, with Italy, Spain and France exceeding the threshold of 20 thousand deaths, and Great Britain is coming from behind. However, the situation is beginning to stabilize in many parts of Europe and more and more governments are talking about gradual relaxation of restrictions.

Loans – As many as 260 thousand individuals and about 10 thousand companies from Romania that are bank customers have so far applied for suspension of loan payments. This means 17% of the loans granted to individuals and under 10% of the total loans granted to legal entities, shows data centralized by the Romanian Banks Association. So far 175 thousand applications have been solved, with the rest being currently processed. Applications may be applied by customers whose incomes have been affected directly or indirectly by the general situation created by the coronavirus pandemic.

Economy — The Romanian economy minister, Virgil Popescu, said in an interview to the American channel Bloomberg that the coronavirus pandemic affected one third of Romania’s economy, especially tourism and the car industry. He said however that once activity is resumed, Romania will not have a higher budget deficit, as European experts expect. The Romanian economy minister said that industrial production should be re-structured, with the government focusing on those sectors that proved to have a potential ahead of the crisis: energy, petrochemical industry and defense. The Bloomberg journalists quote economic pundits as saying that Romania is going to be one of the hardest hit European countries by the economic crisis, with an expected deficit of 7.5% of the GDP this year.

Handball – Romania’s women’s handball team was directly qualified to the 2020 European Championship scheduled in Norway and Denmark in December, after the other matches in the preliminary round were cancelled by the Executive Committee of the European Handball Federation. Gathered in a videoconference on Friday the European Federation announced the other teams that qualified to the final tournament namely France, Russia, the Netherlands, Sweden, Hungary, Montenegro, Germany, Serbia, Spain, Slovenia, Poland, the Czech Republic and Croatia along the host countries. Of the current qualification stage, 4 rounds remained un-played, with Romania having already won two matches in a group which also includes Poland, Ukraine and the Faeroe Islands. Also the European playoffs have been cancelled counting for the World Men’s Championship of 2021. (tr. L. Simion)