April 26, 2014
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Roxana Vasile, 26.04.2014, 12:00
The Ministry of Public Finances in Bucharest hails Moody’s decision to raise Romania’s credit rating outlook from negative to stable adding that the move confirms both the economic progress of the past year and the fact that Romania stands out as a factor of stability and growth in the region. In a communique published last night, the agency said the good macroeconomic evolution of 2013 would continue. Romania last year managed to curb the budget deficit to 2.3% of the GDP thus complying with the conditions agreed upon with the IMF and the European Union. Inflation has also been trimmed down to 1.6%, the volume of exports increased, while imports have been kept at a low level. According to Moody’s, Romania will continue to register a growth in the GDP supported by exports and the absorption of European funds. However, consumption and crediting could still remain below the level before the crisis.
According to a high-ranking US official, the G7 group of the world’s most industrialized nations has pledged new sanctions on Russia, which could be made public on Monday. The G7 has hailed the restraint shown by the authorities in Kiev in the case of the pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine but mentioned that Russia took no concrete actions in order to implement the last week’s agreement in Geneva, aimed at defusing the situation in the region. A Pentagon spokesperson has been quoted by France Press as saying that Russian planes have violated Ukraine’s airspace a couple of times in the past 24 hours. The pro-western authorities in Kiev are blaming Moscow for trying to trigger the third world war, saying that Russia is preparing an invasion of Ukraine and is trying to destabilize the political situation in the country before the snap presidential election on May 25th. In another move, pro-Russian separatists have accused the OSCE observers, whom they are holding hostage in eastern Ukraine, of being NATO spies adding they will release the hostages only in exchange for their prisoners. The OSCE observers were captured on Friday in Slaviansk, a stronghold of the pro-Russian insurgents in eastern Ukraine.
Up to a million Catholic believers from around the world are expected to pour into St Peter’s Square in Rome on Sunday to see Pope Francis canonise not only Pope John Paul the second but also Pope John the 23rd, an Italian pontiff who reigned in the 1960s. Concurently with the historic event on Sunday, the present pontiff Francis, will be receiving the heads of state and government who are participating in the event in Rome. The ceremony will also be attended by Romanian archbishop Ioan Robu as well as by numerous priests, monks, nuns and believers from all over Romania.
In a communiqué made public on Friday, the Romanian Foreign Ministry has specified that it has been closely monitoring the situation in Ukraine, being in permanent contact with the Romanian embassy in Kiev. The ministry has been in touch with the Romanian members of the OSCE monitoring team, who weren’t implied in the incident in eastern Ukraine. At the same time, the diplomacy in Bucharest has voiced profound concerned about a situation like this in which the lives of members of an OSCE monitoring team are being threatened and put at risk in an independent and sovereign country that boasts OSCE participation.
Nine doctors of a state-run hospital in Bucharest, including its director, as well as the employee of a private clinic have been placed under legal investigation in a file on illegal plastic surgery. According to prosecutors, who are to call for the culprits’ preventive arrest, those involved used false diagnosis and surgery interventions in a scheme aimed at raking in money from the National Health Insurance system. For their services, the medical staffers under investigation would allegedly have received between 450 and 3500 euros in bribe. Hundreds of thousands of euros have been found in the culprits’ houses and offices following a search operation. 26 people, 16 doctors, a nurse and 9 patients are currently being investigated for bribe taking and giving in this dossier.
