Forecasts on Romanian economy<\/p>\n
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The European Commission has revised
\ndownwards its forecasts on Romania’s economic growth this year from 4.5% down to
\n3.6%. According to the autumn forecast published on Thursday by the European
\nCommission, Romania’s economic growth is slowing down against the background of
\ndecreasing private consumption and the increasing negative contribution of
\nexports. In 2019, Romania’s economic growth is expected to stand at around 3.8%
\ndown from 3.9% forecasted in spring. The Commission has also revised its
\nforecasts on Romania’s inflation, which is to increase slightly from 4.2% to
\n4.3%. The consumer price index will maintain its upward trend and the annual
\ninflation rate is expected to go down in the following months to 3.5% from more
\nthan 5%, the highest in the EU, Central Bank governor Mugur Isarescu explains.
\nAccording to Isarescu, who has recently presented the institution’s latest
\nquarterly report on inflation, the inflation rate in Romania is going to keep
\nits downward trend in 2019 as well. Isarescu has also said that the relatively
\nstable evolution of the domestic currency this year has contributed to the
\nprocess of keeping the dynamics of consumer prices at bay. Romania’s trade
\ndeficit went up by more than one billion Euros in the first nine months of this
\nyear, to 10 billion Euros, the National Institute for Statistics has announced.
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A Constitutional Court Ruling on Judicial Panels <\/p>\n
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Romania’s Constitutional Court has
\nruled that there is a legal conflict of constitutional nature between
\nParliament and the High Court of Cassation and Justice with regard to the
\ncreation of 5-judge panels. Constitutional Court magistrates have argued the
\nSupreme Court has issued several rulings since 2014, according to which only
\nfour out of the five panel members are designated by drawing lots. These
\n5-judge panels at the Supreme Court are currently looking into cases involving
\nsome high-ranking politicians, including the leaders of the parties in the
\nruling coalition, the Social Democratic Party and the Alliance of Liberals and
\nDemocrats, namely Liviu Dragnea and Calin Popescu Tariceanu,
\nrespectively, as well as businessman Sebastian Ghita and the former
\nConstitutional Court judge Toni Grebla, the incumbent secretary general of the
\ngovernment. According to Florin Iordache, the president
\nof a special parliamentary committee in charge of amending the justice laws,
\nall five judges from the panels that analyze ongoing cases must be selected by
\ndrawing of lots, whereas people who are unhappy with previous
\nrulings can now invoke that the judicial panels that ruled in their case were
\nset up non-legally. Opposition MP Stelian Ion from the Save
\nRomania Union says the Constitutional Court’s ruling comes as an
\nunpleasant surprise and that it may have been influenced politically,
\nwhich undermines its credibility.<\/p>\n
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Expulsions from the Social-Democratic Party<\/p>\n
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Two leaders of the Social-Democratic
\nParty were expelled from the party after they had publicly criticized its
\nleadership. On Monday, the PSD National Executive Committee decided with a
\nlarge majority the expulsion of two leaders from the party, namely
\nVice-president Adrian Tutuianu and general secretary Marian Neacsu. The reasons
\ninvoked in their case were alleged actions harmful to the ruling party. The
\nallegations have been rejected as ungrounded by the two Social-Democrats, who
\nadded that speaking about the problems affecting the party doesn’t mean being
\nagainst the party itself. Journalists have recalled that Adrian Tutuianu said
\nin a meeting of the local PSD branch that he leads – a speech recorded without
\nhis consent – that the Social Democratic Party is a party of monkeys if they
\naccept Liviu Dragnea to nominate a Prime Minister out of the blue and that the
\npresent cabinet is a tragedy in terms of quality. Deputy Prime Minister Paul
\nStanescu was on the side of the two expelled leaders saying that kicking them
\nout of the party was a great mistake while the mayor of Bucharest, Gabriela
\nFirea said in a communiqu\u00e9 that it was hard to be a PSD member under the terror
\nof expulsion and dissolution.<\/p>\n
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Romanian Prime Minister Viorica Dancila’s visit to Qatar and Oman<\/p>\n
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Romanian Prime Minister Viorica
\nDancila has this week paid a formal visit to the Sultanate of Oman and to
\nQatar. The tour was aimed at consolidating the bilateral political dialogue and
\neconomic cooperation with member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council. On Monday,
\nduring a business forum in Muscat, the Romanian Prime Minister pointed out that
\nin its capacity as an EU member state, Romania is interested in building
\nbridges between the European Union and Gulf countries, which may lay robust
\nfoundations for the extension of bilateral relations. On Wednesday, Viorica
\nDancila chaired an economic forum in Doha, where she presented the main
\nprojects and business opportunities, which could be accomplished under a
\npublic-private partnership as well as the readiness of the Bucharest
\nauthorities to tighten cooperation with business partners from the Gulf area.
\nPrime Minister Dancila also underlined Romania’s geo-strategic position and the
\nlatest upward trend of its economy launching an invitation to the business
\npeople from the two countries to invest in Romania’s key sectors, such as
\ninfrastructure, agriculture, tourism and healthcare. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A roundup of the week’s main stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":108,"featured_media":124561,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40944],"tags":[30655,30253,33035],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-124610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-week-in-review","tag-central-bank","tag-mugur-isarescu","tag-viorica-dancila"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n