August 7, 2024 UPDATE
A roundup of local and international news.
Newsroom, 07.08.2024, 19:42
Finance. The National Bank of Romania on Wednesday decided to again cut the monetary policy interest rate, as of 8th August, to 6.5% a year from 6.75% previously. The Bank has also moved to reduce the lending facility rates to 7.50% a year, from 7.75% a year, and the deposit facility rate to 5.50% a year from 5.75% a year. It also maintained the current levels of minimum reserve rates on the liabilities of credit institutions in the Romanian currency and foreign currency. According to the National Bank, the annual inflation rate has continued to drop in June this year, to reach 4.94%, below the expected level, from 5.12% in May. In another news, according to a study by the Romanian Commercial Bank, consumer credits continue to go up, as a result of lower interest rates on new loans and more relaxed lending conditions, amid the competition between banks. According to a Eurostat report, Romania saw the biggest growth in retail sale in the European Union in June 2024 compared to June 2023.
NATO. A detachment of the Spanish Air Force will conduct enhanced air policing missions under NATO command, in partnership with the Romanian Air Forces. The Spanish pilots are thus replacing their British and Finnish counterparts at the Mihail Kogălniceanu Air Base in (southeastern Romania). For four months, they will be patrolling the Black Sea region to ensure the security of Romanian and NATO air space. This is the third rotation for the Spanish Air Force at the Mihail Kogălniceanu air base, where NATO first deployed allied troops in 2014, following Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea, in order to ensure the security of the Black Sea region, an area facing even more complex threats in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Ukraine. The EU Council gave the green light for the payment of the first installment worth 4.2 billion euros as part of the Ukraine Facility. Kyiv is to receive 50 billion euros over the next few years in the form of grants and loans for the purpose of macroeconomic support. According to Radio Romania’s Brussels correspondent, Ukraine must implement reforms in public finance management, the management of state-owned enterprises, the business sector and energy. The facility for Ukraine, a EU candidate country, also aims at the recovery, reconstruction and modernisation of this country in the wake of the war with Russia.
Ship. The Mircea training ship will return on Thursday to the Constanţa military port, in the south-east, after a 6-week training course in the Black Sea and the Mediterrranean, the defence ministry said in a statement. On board the vessel are 86 students from the Romanian Navy Academy and 8 foreign students from partner navy academies from Bulgaria, Latvia, Poland, Spain and Turkey. The ship left the port on 26th June and has since made stopovers in the ports of Piraeus, in Greece, Livorno, in Italy, Toulon, in France, Palermo, again in Italy and Bodrum in Turkey.
Festival. The 9th edition of the Untold Music Festival is getting under way on Thursday in Cluj-Napoca (in the north-west). The four-day event will bring together some 250 Romanian and international acts, who will be performing on eight different stages. The line-up features the likes of Lenny Kravitz and Salvatore Ganacci, who have performed in Romania before, as well as others who will be here for the first time, like Sam Smith and Burna Boy. The latter is the only African musician whose concerts on the London Stadium were sold-out for two years in a row. He will perform on the main stage on the festival’s final day. Untold is the biggest and most popular music festival in Romania, attracting fans from all over the world every year.
