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| THE WEEK IN REVIEW 29.03- 4.04/2010 |
| (2010-04-02) |
| Last updated: 2010-04-07 14:38 EET |
The Romanian Central Bank has cut by 0.5% the monetary policy interest rate, which has reached the historic figure of 6.5% and might keep dropping, along with the inflation rate. Analysts say that a lower monetary policy rate could help boost loaning, which would subsequently lead to a revival of consumption and investment. The latter would in turn restart the Romanian economy, which is still reporting negative results. Central Bank Governor Mugur Isarescu says the economy is showing signs of recovery, but warns that this development very much depends on how the authorities will apply the policies agreed upon with the international financial institutions.
The Romanian economy will recover this year and might register a 1% growth, said the IMF Director Dominique Strauss Kahn, who on Tuesday paid a short visit to Bucharest. He had a meeting with the Romanian head of state Traian Basescu and the PM Emil Boc. The IMF chief warned that unemployment would continue to grow in the coming months. President Traian Basescu has stated that Romania wishes a long term cooperation with the IMF and most likely, when the current agreement expires, our country will request a flexible credit line and a new stand-by agreement. In 2009, Bucharest concluded a funding agreement with several international financial institutions, worth a total of 20 billion Euros, of which 13 billion from the IMF.
On Wednesday, the Romanian PM Emil Boc went to Chisinau to hand out, together with his Moldovan counterpart, Vlad Filat, the first small-scale cross-border trade certificate to citizens of the Republic of Moldova, Romania's neighbour with a predominantly Romanian speaking population. Boc has stated that Bucharest wishes to conclude a visa lifting agreement with Chisinau, but until that happens, Moldova must seriously apply the provisions of the cross-border trade agreement. Thanks to this agreement, over 1.2 million Moldovan citizens, who live within a range of 50 kms from the border, can enter Romania without a visa, just holding a permit.
Romania has the poorest education system in the EU in terms of performances, and over the past 20 years no reform has been carried out in the field. All that has been done was nothing but patchwork. This is what President Traian Basescu said at a public debate on a new national education bill. Under the draft law, compulsory education will cover 10 years, evaluation will be made through international-type tests and a preparatory year is mandatory and included in the primary school system. The bill has been harshly criticised by both teachers and the opposition parties who have submitted a motion to the Senate in this respect. The signatories to the motion believe that the situation in the education system has worsened and the repeated changes made along the years have generated confusion among pupils and teachers.
The protests of the teaching staff from Romania have continued this week. They are discontent with the lower salaries resulted after the enforcement of the unified salary law and with the announced lay offs. For the moment, protests included picketing, marches and a token strike in mid March. Teachers threaten to freeze the school year unless their claims are met.
The month of April started with further protests and lay offs. An unofficial strike of bus, tramcar and trolley bus drivers paralysed traffic in the capital on Thursday. Family doctors decided to no longer prescribe free of charge or discounted medicines or sick leaves, in protest against the decrease in the revenues of their practises. On the other hand, on April 1st, 780 employees of the National Passenger Railway Company were dismissed, and another 1200 are soon to be sacked. In March, over 4 thousand employees of the railway companies were laid off. By December the total number of lay offs in this sector will exceed 10 thousand.
The European Commission has temporarily suspended the payment of funds allotted to Romania in a programme designed to contribute to the development of human resources. The suspended payments amount to almost 8 million euros. Brussels made the resumption of payments conditional on the resolution of problems related to bureaucracy and the flawed operation of the electronic payment system.
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