August 7, 2023 UPDATE

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Newsroom, 07.08.2023, 19:53

Spending – The Romanian government is this week planning to adopt an emergency ordinance to cut public spending. The fifty measures envisaged include reducing the number of management and under-secretary positions, merging various institutions and eliminating holiday vouchers for some state employees. According to estimates from the Finance Ministry, this would save more than 1.2 billion Euros to the state budget by the end of the year. The government is also planning an emergency decree introducing a number of tax changes aimed at increasing budget revenues. Talks on the subject are still ongoing between the parties in the ruling coalition, the Social Democratic Party and the National Liberal Party, amid criticism from the business community.

Moldova — Romania is ready to provide specialist support to the National Army of the Republic of Moldova, the Romanian Defense Minister Angel Tîlvăr said on Monday in Chisinau. In this sense, he highlighted the recent donation of individual ballistic protection equipment and off-road vehicles, which is part of a continuous effort to support the Republic of Moldova in the field of equipping the army with modern equipment. Tîlvăr went to Chişinău at the invitation of his counterpart, Anatolie Nosatîi, with whom he discussed bilateral cooperation in the field of defense in the regional, NATO and EU contexts. Aspects were addressed regarding the evolution of the security environment in the region, as a result of the war of aggression waged by the Russian Federation against Ukraine, with an emphasis on the situations caused by the Russian bombings on Ukraine’s ports on the Danube, in the vicinity of the borders with Romania and the Republic of Moldova. At the same time, the Romanian official reiterated Romanias full support for the advancement of the Republic of Moldova on the pro-European path.

Summit – Romania will continue to stand by Ukraine as long as it takes to win this war, said the presidential advisor and former foreign minister Bogdan Aurescu at the Ukraine peace talks in Saudi Arabia. Any future solution for peace must guarantee Ukraines security within its internationally recognized borders and the freedom to hold sovereign elections, free of any interference, the Romanian official also said. According to the BBC, the summits final declaration only refers to the decision to hold further peace talks. The summit was attended by senior officials from dozens of countries, including Brazil, India, China and South Africa, with Russia not being invited.

Pensions – Romanian senators and deputies are to return to Parliament this week to again amend a bill adopted at the end of June on the special pensions enjoyed by a number of professional categories in Romania, such as magistrates, the military and the police. The PM Marcel Ciolacu said that he had summoned a special session of Parliament as a number of articles of the bill were declared unconstitutional last week. According to official figures, the number of special pensions’ beneficiaries is growing, with over 10,000 beneficiaries recorded in July, up from the previous month. The highest special pension amounted to around 4,300 Euros. Romania has committed to reforming the special pensions system in order to receive funds allocated by the European Union under the Recovery and Resilience Plan.

BNR – The National Bank of Romania – BNR decided to maintain the monetary policy interest rate at 7% per year, a level established since January. At the end of Mondays meeting of the Board of Directors, it was stated that the annual inflation rate continued to decrease in June to 10.25%, against the background of cheaper fuels and the stabilization of prices for some foodstuffs. The Central Bank points out that the new statistical data reconfirms the slowdown in the economic growth rate in the first three months of the year and a modest increase from April to the end of September. BNR also states that, in the months of April and May, retail and automotive sales slowed their growth in comparison with the same period of last year, and the services provided to the population strongly accelerated their decline. (LS, CM)