Christmas. Orthodox
\nChristians, Greek-Catholics and Catholics from around the world, including from
\nOrthodox-majority Romania, are today celebrating Christmas Eve. A widespread
\ncustom in Romania on Christmas Eve is the colindat,
\na ritual made up of ceremonial texts, dances and gestures. The performers symbolise
\nthe angels and the shepherds who were the first to receive the news of Christ’s
\nbirth. They wish their hosts well and in exchange receive food or money. Pantocrator
\nMonastery in Teleorman county, in the south, is the site of a pilgrimage this
\nyear, as it hosts some of the gifts taken by the magi to the newborn in
\nBethlehem and brought over from Mount Athos. They will be on display until 28th
\nDecember. <\/p>\n
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Gas. Romania has enough gas in its
\nwarehouses for this winter, more than at any other time, the energy minister Sebastian Burduja told a TV interview. He said warehouses
\nare 90% full and that if this is a normal winter with at most two spells of
\ncold and blizzards of no more than 7 days a month, then the Romanian gas will
\nbe enough to last the winter. Burduja said the gas extracted from the Black Sea
\nwill be used from 2027 and that Romania should continue to be energy
\nindependent, at least when it comes to gas. <\/p>\n
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GDP. Romania’s GDP in 2022 stood at around 1,400 billion lei (the
\nequivalent of 280 billion euros), more than 8.4 billion lei less compared with
\nthe previous estimate, according to provisional data published by the National
\nInstitute for Statistics. The new figures show that last year’s economic growth
\nrate was 4.1% instead of the estimated 4.7%. The change was the result of the
\nreduction of contributions to economic growth, both in agriculture and industry
\nand the building sector. The final data on the country’s GDP in 2022 will
\npublished in the first part of 2024. <\/p>\n
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Earthquake. An earthquake
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A roundup of local and international news.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":113,"featured_media":105194,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-612052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsflash"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\nmeasuring 4.2 degrees on the Richter scale was recorded this morning in Vrancea county, in
\nthe east. According to the National Institute for Earth<\/em> Physics, the quake occurred at 8:06
\nam, at a depth of 97 km. From the beginning of the month, 16 earthquake have
\ntaken place in Romania, the strongest of which was 4.8 magnitude. The strongest
\nquake this year, 5.7, occurred in February in Gorj county, at a depth of 6.3
\nkm. <\/p>\n