September 7, 2017 UPDATE
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Newsroom, 07.09.2017, 19:50
COMMISSIONER The European Commissioner for Regional Policy, Corina Cretu said in Bucharest on Thursday that Romania could attract by the end of the year one billion euros from development and cohesion funds. The European official has hailed the fact that the month of August saw the accreditation of all the national authorities in charge of the management and control of the 23 billion euro budget earmarked to Romania for the 2014 — 2020 period. The commissioner went on to say that in terms of European funds, Romania has registered delays caused by the slow process of preparing and implementing these projects. The European Commissioner’s statements were made upon the meeting she had with the country’s Prime Minister Mihai Tudose.
IMF The IMF recommends the Romanian government to aim for a medium-term budget deficit of 1.5% in order to keep public debt at a lower level. The statement was made in Bucharest on Thursday by the IMF representative for Romania, Alejandro Hajdenberg. He added that the positive evoloution of the Romanian economy recently is mostly based on consumption and this tends to cause a higher fiscal deficit. We recall that Romania doesn’t have an agreement with the IMF at present.
GROWTH Romania has reported the biggest annual economic growth in the EU in the period April-June 2017, thanks to a 5.7% rise, show the new revised estimates published by Eurostat on Thursday. Thus, the GDP reported a 5.7% growth both in the first and second quarters of 2017 as compared to the same period of last year. The data recently published show that Eurostat slightly revised up the estimates regarding the economic growth rate reported annually both in the Euro zone and in the EU.
MEETING Romania’s Foreign Minister, Teodor Melescanu, is participating on Thursday and Friday in Tallinn, Estonia, in the informal meeting of the foreign ministers of the EU member states, hosted by the Estonian presidency of the EU Council. A Foreign Ministry communiqué shows that the main topics to be approached are the North Korean file and the Middle East peace process, among other things. The EU foreign ministers will discuss with the EU defense ministers about the implementation of the European defense package. Also a meeting will be held with the foreign ministers of candidate countries regarding the prevention and combating of radicalization and violent extremism. The Romanian foreign minister will also meet with Johannes Hahn, the Commissioner for European Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations to discuss the developments in the Republic of Moldova.