December 24, 2023

A roundup of local and international news.

Newsroom, 24.12.2023, 12:42

Christmas. Orthodox
Christians, Greek-Catholics and Catholics from around the world, including from
Orthodox-majority Romania, are today celebrating Christmas Eve. A widespread
custom in Romania on Christmas Eve is the colindat,
a ritual made up of ceremonial texts, dances and gestures. The performers symbolise
the angels and the shepherds who were the first to receive the news of Christ’s
birth. They wish their hosts well and in exchange receive food or money. Pantocrator
Monastery in Teleorman county, in the south, is the site of a pilgrimage this
year, as it hosts some of the gifts taken by the magi to the newborn in
Bethlehem and brought over from Mount Athos. They will be on display until 28th
December.

Gas. Romania has enough gas in its
warehouses for this winter, more than at any other time, the energy minister Sebastian Burduja told a TV interview. He said warehouses
are 90% full and that if this is a normal winter with at most two spells of
cold and blizzards of no more than 7 days a month, then the Romanian gas will
be enough to last the winter. Burduja said the gas extracted from the Black Sea
will be used from 2027 and that Romania should continue to be energy
independent, at least when it comes to gas.

GDP. Romania’s GDP in 2022 stood at around 1,400 billion lei (the
equivalent of 280 billion euros), more than 8.4 billion lei less compared with
the previous estimate, according to provisional data published by the National
Institute for Statistics. The new figures show that last year’s economic growth
rate was 4.1% instead of the estimated 4.7%. The change was the result of the
reduction of contributions to economic growth, both in agriculture and industry
and the building sector. The final data on the country’s GDP in 2022 will
published in the first part of 2024.

Earthquake. An earthquake
measuring 4.2 degrees on the Richter scale was recorded this morning in Vrancea county, in
the east. According to the National Institute for Earth Physics, the quake occurred at 8:06
am, at a depth of 97 km. From the beginning of the month, 16 earthquake have
taken place in Romania, the strongest of which was 4.8 magnitude. The strongest
quake this year, 5.7, occurred in February in Gorj county, at a depth of 6.3
km.