01.08.2013

A roundup of Romanian news.

România Internațional, 01.08.2013, 18:22

Romania must pay 164.4 million euros to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in August accounting for capital reimbursement rates and commissions on a stand-by loan signed in 2009, the government in Bucharest announced on Thursday. Romania signed a 20-billion euro bailout package with the IMF, the World Bank and the European Commission. In 2011, Bucharest signed a precautionary loan agreement of 5 billion euros with its international lenders, an agreement, which came to a successful end in June 2013. On Wednesday, the Romanian authorities, the IMF and the European Commission agreed on a new precautionary loan agreement.

A draft law on a basic health services package will be made available for public debate at the end of this month before the government calls for a vote of confidence on this bill, the Romanian health minister Eugen Nicolaescu has announced. He says the underlying principles of the new bill are prevention, the efficient use of public funds and finding the right balance between people’s needs and the state’s resources. Nicolaescu has also said that no deadline can be set for the completion of a new list of subsidised and free medicines. This list was last revised in 2008.

Romania’s president Traian Basescu called for a meeting of the Country’s Supreme Defence Council on Friday to discuss the privatisation of the freight division of the Romanian Railways Company approved by the government last week. In June, the Romanian Railway Group, which forms part of the Grampet group, was declared the winner of the tender to privatise the country’s railway freight division, with a bid of 200 million euros in exchange for 51% of the shares. The Group has also undertaken to invest around 204 million euros. The freight division of the Romanian Railways Company holds a more than 40% share of the railway transport market in Romania, with the Romanian Railway Group holding another 30%.

Almost 10,000 Dacia cars, a Romanian brand owned by the French group Renault, were registered in France in July. According to the French Car Makers Committee, Dacia sales grew by 6% compared to July 2012, with Dacia now holding an almost 6.5% share of the French car market. In Romania, the Dacia factory was taken over by Renault in 1999 and its Logan model was an international success.