March 29, 2018
Click here for a roundup of domestic and international news
Newsroom, 29.03.2018, 14:17
WEATHER Weather is getting slightly warmer across Romania, so much so that temperature readings are getting closer to the season’s values for the most part of the country, save for the northwest and the far western part of the territory, where the skies are overcast and rainfalls have been reported, while temperature readings stand at unseasonably cold values for this time of the year. Sleet and snowfalls have been reported for high-altitude regions. The wind blows slightly to moderately, temporarily intensifying in the mountain regions, in the northwest and center, while fog has been forecast for the lower areas in the south and east. The highs of the day range from nine to seventeen degrees Celsius. The noon reading in Bucharest stood at 9 degrees Celsius. Hydrologists have renewed their code yellow and orange alerts for flooding, in place until Friday afternoon, for 12 rivers in the south, southwest, center and northeast. In the wake of the heavy rainfalls in the past days, some of the segments of the Danube have been placed under the incidence of a series of code yellow and orange alerts for flooding, in place until the beginning of April.
KOREA South Korea’s president Moon Jae-in is to meet north-Korean leader Kim Jong-un on April 27th. The meeting was announced after officials from South and North Korea had held talks in the border village of Panmunjom. Kim Jong-un has reiterated his pledge to scrap his country’s nuclear programme during a surprising visit that he paid to China this week. South-Korean government has said this is going to be the most important topic of discussion because there is concern the north-Korean leader is not ready to give up his arsenal so easily. The meeting will try to pave the way for the possible meeting between US president Donald Trump and the north-Korean leader.
ORDINANCE The government in Bucharest is today tackling an emergency ordinance, which brings fresh amendments to the Fiscal Code. One of these amendments is allowing companies to choose between the profit tax and turnover if they are under the one million euros threshold. According to Public Finance Minister Eugen Teodorovici, another amendment deals with reimbursing the environment tax for applicants who can produce their personal numeric code. The amendments also include a decision to raise from 2% to 3.5% the income tax share for natural persons, which could be earmarked for the NGOs.
PROTESTS Trade unions from Romania’s healthcare system on Thursday picketed the Labour Ministry in Bucharest. The protest today comes after the similar actions medical personnel mounted in front of the field ministry on Tuesday. The protesters have called for pay rises beginning March 1st for the entire medical and social assistance employees. They have also asked the authorities to stop keeping the bonus ceiling at 30% at the same time allowing the employees to offset the losses they suffered after new payment regulations had come into effect on January 1st. According to Health Minister Sorina Pintea, the executive’s agenda today also includes bonus regulations for the medical personnel. The minister has explained the personnel will benefit from bonuses according to their skill levels. Against the background of severely underfunded medical services, Romania has for years seen a massive exodus of doctors and nurses who left for better jobs abroad.
BNR Romania’s Central bank had to raise the reference interest rate twice due to accelerated inflation rate with major effects over the economic environment, Central Bank governor Mugur Isarescu said on Thursday before the Senate’s economic committee. According to him, the current account deficit has increased more than in other countries in the region and the pressure on the national currency has been higher. Data released by the National Institute for Statistics show that the annual inflation rate showing the evolution of consumption prices in the past year reached 4.72% in February, a record high since 2013. At the same time the Central Bank has recently raised for the second time this year the reference interest rate from 2% to 2.25% a year.
translated by bill
