Romanians between Christmas and New Year’s Eve
Romanians spent a peaceful Christmas this year, after shopping until late at night on the eve of the holidays.
România Internațional, 28.12.2015, 13:20
According to the Romanian Interior Ministry, this years Christmas was the safest and most peaceful in the past five years. 37,000 police, gendarmes, fire fighters, border police officers and SMURD staff helped ensure the necessary conditions for Romanians to be safe. At national level, the number of patients registered with the Emergency Units went up by 20% as compared to a regular evening, although physicians had recommended caution with regard to the consumption of food and alcohol.
Usually, during the winter holidays, sales go up even by 200%. Generally speaking, customers shop in December by 35% more than in the other months of the year, especially on food for the festive meals, trees, decorations and toys. The loan market has developed this year too, against the background of an increase in consumption, a drop in interest rates and the fiscal relaxation measures adopted by the Government.
Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos has stated that next years deficit will stand at around 3%, but the government will have to be careful and protect the country from a long term economic destabilization. He has said that 2016 will not be an austerity year, but reforms will have to be implemented in fields such as the administration, transports, health-care and education. This year, the health-care staff has already got a 25% salary increase, just like the education staff. As for the national currency, the LEU, it has been rather stable this year, even if there have been periods when the value of the Euro has exceeded 4.5 LEI.
Analysts say that the most important variations have been triggered by external factors. Still, the Romanian currency has been less affected by fluctuations than other national currencies, such as those of Hungary or Poland. Starting January 1st, 2016, three taxes will be cut in Romania: the value added tax, the tax on dividends and the tax on small enterprises. The VAT will thus be 20%, which means that all products should be cheaper, for the benefit of the Romanian citizens. The tax on dividends will drop from 16% to 5%.
There is also good news for the owners of small businesses. Those who have more employees will pay 1% income tax and those who have no employees, 3%. All these measures translate into approximately 2.2 billion Euros from the state budget, money that the Government hopes to partly recover from next years economic growth.
(Translation by M. Igantescu)
