{"id":1018406,"date":"2026-05-16T19:52:44","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T16:52:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/?p=1018406"},"modified":"2026-05-16T19:52:44","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T16:52:44","slug":"may-16-2026-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/en\/news-and-current-affairs\/newsflash\/may-16-2026-update-id1018406.html","title":{"rendered":"May 16, 2026 UPDATE"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>RATING<\/strong> S&amp;P Global Ratings affirms Romania\u2019s sovereign credit rating at BBB-\/A-3 with a negative outlook one notch above the \u2018junk\u2019 category, which would translate as not recommended for investment, a communiqu\u00e9 issued by the aforementioned agency says. The agency believes the dissolution of the four-party coalition will complicate efforts to reduce Romania\u2019s wide twin current account and fiscal deficits as the 2028 elections approach. According to the same sources, stronger fiscal performance so far this year, driven by tough consolidation measures adopted in 2025 and upcoming sizable EU fund disbursements, should anchor Romania\u2019s external funding conditions, as the current account deficit gradually narrows from an estimated 7.9% of GDP last year.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>DELTA<\/strong> The Danube Delta and the main tourist spots in Tulcea county, south-eastern Romania are safe for tourists, in spite of the drone attacks close to the border with Ukraine \u2013 Cristian B\u0103rh\u0103lescu, president of the National Association of Tourism Agencies says. According to him the only solution for supporting the affected travel operators in the area is the correct promotion of the reality on the ground as well as messages, which say that it is safe to visit the Delta. Drone attacks close to the delta have affected public perception and led to a diminished inflow of tourists in Tulcea county, which proves to be a significant blow dealt to the local communities hankering for intense promotion and guarantees for safety in their areas.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>TALKS<\/strong> Romania\u2019s President, Nicusor Dan, will be holding talks with the Parliamentarian parties on Monday to forge a new government, the presidential administration in Bucharest says. This new round of talks comes after the sacking through a no-confidence vote on May 5<sup>th<\/sup> of the self-proclaimed pro-western minority government made up of PNL-USR-UDMR and headed by the Liberal Ilie Bolojan. According to President Dan, the talks will be focusing on forging a majority because he believes that unless there is a Parliament majority to back a new government, frictions are to appear between the Legislature and the Executive shortly. The President hinted at the fact that there will be no announcement regarding the nomination of a Prime Minister at the end of the talks next week.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>INFLATION<\/strong> Romania\u2019s inflation rate is to increase by the end of June above the initial estimates, mainly due to price hikes in fuel, but is expected to significantly drop from July to September against the background of the diminishing effects of the elimination of last year\u2019s cap on electricity and the raised VAT and excises \u2013 the country\u2019s Central Bank says. The forecast comes after the National Institute of Statistics has announced a 10.7% inflation rate in April. In another development, Romania\u2019s Central Bank has decided to keep the monetary policy interest rate at 6.5% due to uncertainties on the political stage.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>CAPTURE<\/strong> Border police with the Henri Coanda international airport in Bucharest have found almost two thousand cigarette packs in the luggage of five Romanians coming back from Turkiye. Another Romanian tourist coming from Jordan tried to hide almost one kilogram of shisha. In both cases all those involved have been fined and the products they were trying to smuggle into Romania have been seized by the customs authority.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>WEATHER<\/strong> In Romania meteorologists have issued a code orange alert for heavy downpours mainly in its southern regions. Heavy rainfalls and hail have also been reported in the country\u2019s west. The aforementioned alert is valid until Sunday morning when the weather is expected to get cooler, particularly in the country\u2019s southern and south-western regions. Hydrologists have also issued flooding alerts on several rivers in the country\u2019s south and south-west.<\/p>\n<p>(bill)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>RATING S&amp;P Global Ratings affirms Romania\u2019s sovereign credit rating at BBB-\/A-3 with a negative outlook one notch above the \u2018junk\u2019 category, which would translate as not recommended for investment, a communiqu\u00e9 issued by the aforementioned agency says. The agency believes the dissolution of the four-party coalition will complicate efforts to reduce Romania\u2019s wide twin current [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":884000,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[30892,190962,190960,190959,158915,32140,190961,29220],"coauthors":[113279],"class_list":["post-1018406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsflash","tag-border-police","tag-cigarettes-en","tag-heavy-downpours","tag-henri-coanda-international-airport","tag-ilie-bolojan","tag-nicusor-dan","tag-pnl-usr-udmr-en","tag-weather"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>May 16, 2026 UPDATE - Radio Romania International<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/en\/news-and-current-affairs\/newsflash\/may-16-2026-update-id1018406.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"May 16, 2026 UPDATE - Radio Romania International\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"RATING S&amp;P Global Ratings affirms Romania\u2019s sovereign credit rating at BBB-\/A-3 with a negative outlook one notch above the \u2018junk\u2019 category, which would translate as not recommended for investment, a communiqu\u00e9 issued by the aforementioned agency says. 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