October 5, 2021 UPDATE

A roundup of local and international news.

Newsroom, 05.10.2021, 19:50

Government. Romania’s minority government formed
by the National Liberal Party and the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in
Romania fell on Tuesday after a vote of no-confidence in Parliament. The motion
against the government was initiated by the Social Democrats in opposition and
also got the votes of the Save Romania Union, itself in the coalition government
until not long ago, and the Alliance for the Union of Romanians. The motion got
281 votes in favour, with the minimum required number being 234. Romanian
president Klaus Iohannis said he would invite political parties for
consultations next week and called for maturity and responsibility. He
emphasised that Romania is in crisis, a crisis of the public healthcare system,
of the energy prices and, now, of government. He deplored the tensions between
politicians and described the situation as complicated.

Finance. The National Bank of
Romania on Tuesday increased the key interest rate to 1.5% per year, the
interest rate to encourage deposit to 1% per year and the Lombard loan interest rate
to 2% per year. The National Bank also decided to retain current levels of
minimum reserve rates for liabilities in the national and foreign currency for
lending institutions. In another move, the Romanian economy is forecast to see
a growth rate of 4.3% this year, after shrinking by 3.9% last year, while next
year it is estimated to grow by 4.1%, according to the World Bank’s latest
regional economic outlook published on Tuesday. Romania’s economy did better
than expected, according to the World Bank, by shrinking by 3.9% in 2020. A
proactive, but limited, fiscal response, of 4.4% of GDP helped companies retain
their employees and fuelled household incomes. However, the World Bank is
expecting poverty to deepen in the short-term because of the Covid pandemic.

Covid-19. Romania saw a record
number of new Covid cases since the start of the pandemic, as over 15,000 new infections
from 77,000 tests were reported on Tuesday, as well as 252 new related
fatalities. Some 14,500 people infected with Covid are receiving hospital
treatment and almost 1,500 are in intensive care, including 22 children. The
incidence rate passed 10 per 1,000 inhabitants in Bucharest. On Tuesday,
Romania activated the EU Protection Mechanism to
be able to purchase Tocilizumab, medication used in the treatment of Covid-19.
The head of the Department for Emergency Situations Raed Arafat explained the
decision to activate the Mechanism saying Romanian hospitals may run low on this
drug in two or three weeks’ time. He added that Romania is also considering
asking for certain equipment, especially individual medical oxygenators. In
another move, the European Medicines Agency approved the administration of the
third dose of the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine to people over the age of 18, saying
that protection against Covid-19 may decrease in time, after the first two
doses. In Romania, the vaccine booster shot began to be administered last week.

Nobel. Scientists Syukuro
Manabe, Klaus Hasselmann and Giorgio Parisi on Tuesday were jointly awarded the
Nobel prize in physics. According to an announcement made by Goran K. Hansson,
the secretary general of the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences, the three
scientists were rewarded for their groundbreaking contributions to our understanding of complex physical systems. On
Monday, American researchers David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian won the Nobel prize
in medicine for discovering how our bodies feel heat and touch. The Nobel
awards season continues with the prize in chemistry on 6th October,
literature on 7th October, peace on 8th October, and
economics on 11th October. (CM)