December 13, 2022 UPDATE

A roundup of local and international news.

Newsroom, 13.12.2022, 19:49

Budget.
Parliament’s joint budget and finance committees on Tuesday issued a favourable
report on the 2023 state budget, approving several amendments to the initial version
submitted by the government. Earlier, the committees also approved the social
security budget bill. Both bills will next be debated by both chambers of
Parliament on Wednesday. The state budget is based on an economic growth rate
of 2.8%, an inflation rate of 8% and a deficit of 4.4% of GDP.

Inflation.
The annual inflation rate went up in Romania to 16.8% in November from 15.3% in
October. According to data published on Tuesday by the National Institute for
Statistics, food products saw the highest rise in prices, at 22%, followed by
non-food products, whose prices went up by 16% and services, which rose by 10%.
These figures are higher than the level forecast last month by the National
Bank governor Mugur Isarescu for the end of the year, namely 16.3%

Schengen.
The European commissioner for home affairs Ylva Johansson on Tuesday told a
debate in the European Parliament in Strasbourg that obtaining Romania’s and
Bulgaria’s accession to the Schengen area will remain her priority and that she
is determined to achieve this next year. She again expressed dissapointment at
the decision of the Justice and Home Affairs Council last Thursday to reject
the entry of Romania and Bulgaria, especially as the two countries have met the
accession criteria for the last 11 years. She emphasised that throughout this
period, they have contributed to building an efficient Schengen area in the
context of the pandemic and the war in Ukraine. The Czech youth, education and
sports minister Vladimir Balas who represented the Czech presidency at the EU
Council, reiterated his conviction that the two countries deserve to join
Schengen. Romania’s president Klaus Iohannis on Tuesday described his country’s
being blocked from entering the Schengen area as regrettable and unjustifiable.
At a meeting with EU ambassadors in Bucharest, he said the refusal was contrary
to the reality demonstrated by solid facts and the European Commission’s
reports showing Romania’s positive results in protecting the Union’s external
border and controlling illegal migration.

Medal.
Romania’s Loredana Toma won two gold medals at the World Weightlifting
Championships hosted by the Colombian capital Bogota, in the competition’s 71
kg snatch and total. She snatched 119 kg, setting a new world record, according
to the Facebook page of the Romanian Weightlifting Federation. Romania won a
total of three medals at the Bogota Championships, the two gold by Toma and a
silver by Mihaela-Valentina Cambei in the snatch event, in the competition’s 49
kg category. 537 athletes from 93 different countries have taken part in the
World Championships in Bogota, which is the first event counting towards
qualification for the Paris Olympic Games in 2024. Romania was represented by
six athletes, four in the women’s and two in the men’s competitions. (CM)