August 21, 2019 UPDATE
Click here for a news update
Newsroom, 21.08.2019, 19:52
Economy — Romania’s economy has registered an unexpected growth rate, reporting an increase in the GDP of 4.8% as compared to the same period of last year, show data provided by the National Institute of Statistics, said Wednesday the PM Viorica Dancila in the opening of the government meeting. Romania has managed to report the second biggest economic growth in the EU. The PM added that, in the first 6 months of 2019, direct foreign investments rose by 30% as against the same period of last year. At present, in the Romanian economy there are over 6.4 million active jobs, the PM Dancila pointed out. She went on to say that the government would approve the necessary expenditure for implementing the project ‘Integrated electronic system of the National Trade Registry Office’ based on which a public portal for interaction with customers will be set up, which reduces the time for registering a company. The project will have great benefits for citizens and the business environment.
Football — Romania’s football vice champions FCSB will play Thursday an away match against the Portuguese eleven Vitoria Guimaraes, in the first leg of the Europa League playoff fighting for a place in the groups. The Portuguese side has so far played no official match against any Romanian team. The return match is scheduled in one week’s time. Romania’s champions CFR Cluj were defeated by the Czech side Slavia Prague 1-0 on home ground on Tuesday in the first leg of the Champions League playoff. The return match between Slavia and CFR will take place on August 28 in Prague. The winner of the match will play in the Champions League groups while the loser will play in the Europa League groups. So far CFR Cluj defeated Astana of Kazakhstan, Maccabi Tel-Aviv of Israel and Celtic Glasgow of Scotland while the Czechs qualified directly to that group phase.
Tennis — Romania’s women’s tennis team will take on Russia in the playoffs of the Fed Cup finals on home ground between February 7 and 8, 2020, following the drawing of lots held Wednesday in London. Romania (ranked 6th in the classification) was top seeded, while Russia (ranked 16th) was in the other urn. The Czech Republic, a wild card beneficiary, Australia and France, finalists in 2019, and Hungary, the host team, have directly qualified to the final tournament that will be hosted in Budapest in April 2020, in the new competition format. The playoff matches will be played according to the best of 5 matches system, 4 singles and one doubles match. In April, Romania was defeated by France 3-2, in Rouen, in the FedCup semifinals. Romania has not played against Russia so far in this competition, but played against the USSR in 1978 and 1986, losing both matches. In the top 100 there are two Romanian players: Simona Halep (4 WTA) and Irina Begu (92 WTA) while Russia has no less than 11 players in this top. (news update by L. Simion)
