January 8, 2023 UPDATE

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Newsroom, 08.01.2023, 19:22

School — School starts on Monday after the winter holidays, and the resumption of classes takes place in the context of a growing number of respiratory infections. Romania is in a state of moderate epidemic alert due to the flu, and the authorities decided that the directors of educational units should send recommendations to parents on how they can recognize the symptoms of such infections, in order to determine whether or not it is necessary to send their children to school. School inspectorates have the obligation to designate a person responsible for permanent communication with the public health departments and to inform the Education Ministry about any exceptional situation from an epidemiological point of view found in educational units. The school managements have the obligation to carry out the daily triage of pupils at the beginning of the first class, in each shift, to provide the necessary materials for the periodic disinfection of hands and surfaces and to periodically ventilate the rooms.

Timisoara – The first event within the “Timişoara – European Capital of Culture 2023” project is scheduled for Monday, when the vice-president of the Commission, Margaritis Schinas, will officially hand over this title in a ceremony at the Acropolis Museum in Athens. This year, Timisoara (western Romania) is one of the three European capitals of culture, along with the cities of Elefsina in Greece and Veszprém in Hungary. The official opening of the event will take place between February 17 and 19, and throughout the year no less than 50 shows, concerts, film premieres, exhibitions and other forms of cultural manifestation have already been included in the calendar of events. Participating are more than 2,500 artists from the country and abroad.

Handball – Romanias womens handball champions, Rapid Bucharest, defeated the Montenegrin team Buducnost on Sunday, at home, in group B of the Champions League and climbed to the third place. The score was 39 to 29. Rapid will play their next away game against Team Esbjerg from Denmark on January 15. On Saturday, Romanias vice-champions, CSM Bucharest, defeated the Czech team Banik Most away from home with the score 35-26, in a Group A match of the Champions League. With this success, Rapid Bucharest players have consolidated their position as the leader of the group. CSM will play the next match on January 14, at home, against the Danes from Odense Handbold.

WB — The World Bank is worried that new adverse shocks could push the global economy into recession this year, with small countries being particularly vulnerable, Bloomberg reports. The warning is included in the biannual Global Economic Prospects report, which is to be published on Tuesday. Even in the absence of another crisis, global economic growth this year is expected to slow down significantly, reflecting the tightening of the monetary policy to counter high inflation, the worsening financial conditions and the continued disruption caused by Russias invasion of Ukraine, the report shows. And the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, Kristalina Georgieva, started the year 2023 by warning that the world would face a more difficult year than the previous one. One third of the world economy will be in recession because the US, the EU and China are slowing down simultaneously, the head of the IMF estimated.

Ukraine — New bombings took place in several parts of Ukraine, after the end of the 36-hour truce unilaterally decreed by Russia during the Christmas period. Ukrainian officials said at least one person was killed in the Kharkov region. Explosions were also reported in the southern cities of Zaporizhzhia and Melitopov. In the east, Russia continued to attack Ukrainian positions even during the truce, the BBC reports. President Volodymyr Zelensky has stated that that is proof of how false Moscows words are and that peace will be restored only after the Russian forces are expelled from his country.

Protests – Approximately 10,000 Israelis participated, on Saturday evening, in Tel Aviv, in protests against the new right-wing government. Many Israelis accuse the administration led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of endangering democracy through the proposed legal reforms. These would allow a simple majority of MPs to cancel the decisions of the High Court, the correspondent of the public station in Israel reports. The NGOs promise an unprecedented resistance of the civil society against these plans that would protect people maintained in high positions, who were already condemned definitively. The Justice Minister, Yariv Levin, requested the regulation of judicial control and the addition of more political representatives to the commission that selects the judges of the Supreme Court.

Pensions – Mandatory private pension funds in Romania had assets worth over 95 billion lei (approximately 19 billion Euros) at the end of November last year, an increase of 11% compared to the level recorded at the same date in 2021, shows the Financial Supervisory Authority – ASF. Most investments made by these funds are Romanian assets, mostly government bonds or shares listed on the stock exchange. ASF data also show that almost eight million people are enrolled in private pension funds, pillar 2. As for the optional pension funds, they had assets worth 3.58 billion lei (approximately 700 million Euros), higher by 9% and almost 620 thousand participants. (LS)