As a result of the coronavirus outbreak,
\nthe number of suspended employment contracts in Romania has risen to around
\n250,000. The figure was announced on Sunday by the labour minister Violeta
\nAlexandru, who underlined that the government is also ready to adopt new
\nmeasures depending on how the situation develops. While the figure indicates an
\nincrease of 50,000 in the space of just a few days, the minister does not
\nexpect any further significant increases, given the government’s decision to pay
\nemployees whose work contracts have been suspended temporarily 75% of their salaries
\nout of the unemployment benefit budget for the duration of the state of
\nemergency. She says all applications will be assessed, so that the sectors in
\nneed of additional support will be catered for. According to an employment inspectorate
\nreport, there were 5.6 million active employees in Romania at the end of
\nFebruary. <\/p>\n
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The National Bank has also come up with
\na series of measures to help markets continue to function. At an emergency
\nmonetary policy meeting, the central bank decided to cut the key interest rate
\nby 0.5%, from 2.5 to 2%. The bank’s spokesman Dan Suciu says the measures are
\nin line with European actions in this area and with the government’s decisions.
\nHe emphasised that the goal is to create the conditions for a better financing of
\nthe economy. The bank official also explained that the measures are meant to ease
\nthe burden of existing payments for businesses and the population with regard
\nto regular payments and the stability of the exchange rate. <\/p>\n
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The package of measures adopted by the
\nNational Bank of Romania also entails providing lending institutions with
\nliquidity in the form of reversable operations involving state bonds, so as to
\nensure the smooth functioning of the monetary market. Another measure taken has
\nto do with the purchase of state bonds in the Romanian currency from the
\nsecondary market in order to consolidate the structural liquidity of the
\nbanking system, thereby contributing to the financing of the real economy and
\nthe public sector. The National Bank of Romania also says in a statement that,
\nwhere necessary, it may reduce the level of obligatory minimum reserves of lending
\ninstitutions for liabilities in both the national and foreign currency. <\/p>\n
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The president of the Fiscal Council Daniel
\nD\u0103ianu says the National Bank of Romania has adopted measures that are tailored
\nto the current difficult situation and in keeping with measures being taken elsewhere
\nin the European Union. He says Romania and other countries not part of the Eurozone
\nshould benefit from special arrangements with the European Central Bank, something
\nother countries benefited from in 2009. D\u0103ianu also emphasises that the banking
\nsystem should support the Romanian state in preventing capital flight. (Tr.: CM)<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Romania’s Government and National Bank take new economic and financial measures to overcome the current crisis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":104,"featured_media":85127,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[35339,29212],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-85126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news","tag-coronavirus","tag-economy"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n