August 23, 2015
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Mihai Pelin, 23.08.2015, 12:00
The Romanian Senate is meeting Monday in an extraordinary session to debate and vote on president Klaus Iohannis’ request for re-examination of the fiscal code bill. The changes to be made to the draft code were discussed Thursday by the representatives of the parliamentary parties. Thus the VAT will be reduced to 20% as of January 2016 and to 19% in 2017. Moreover the elimination of the extra excise duty on fuels was postponed until January 1st 2017. Following the application of these provisions the budget deficit will stand at 2%, says the finance minister Eugen Teodorovici. In turn the Romanian prime minister gave assurances that the new Fiscal Code was sustainable and the money lost from the state budget following the cut of the VAT could be covered by a better collection of taxes, which is estimated at 10 billion lei. In July President Klaus Iohannis sent the new fiscal code bill back to Parliament for re-examination, claiming that its application was not sustainable.
The big trophy of the “Anonimul” International Independent Film Festival hosted by the village of Sfantu Gheorghe in the Danube Delta was granted Saturday to the Romanian production “The World is mine”, the debut feature film of Nicolae Constantin Tanase. The main character is a 16-year-old girl who lives in a small town on the sea shore where influence and money rule. The young woman believes though that her dreams deserve any sacrifice and she will do everything in her power to make them come true. 5 other international productions competed for the big trophy. In the shorts section the audience voted for “Listen”, a Danish-Finish co-production, as best foreign film. The prize for best Romanian short went to the short “0068 Sniper’s Nest” directed by Radu Barbulescu.
The Romanian tennis player, Simona Halep, world’s no. 3, qualified in the final of the WTA Premier tournament hosted by Cincinnati, USA, which has prizes up for grabs worth 2.4 million dollars, after defeating Sunday, 6-1, 6-2the Serbian player Jelena Jankovic (25th in the WTA ranking). In the final Simona will meet American Serena Williams, world’s no. 1 and main favorite of the competition. The two have so far met six times. The score of the matches between Halep and Williams is 5-1 for the American player. Following qualification in the final of the Cincinnati tournament, Simona Halep will become world’s no. 2 player again, as of Monday when the WTA ranking will be made public. Furthermore she received a prize worth 240 thousand dollars and 585 WTA points.
The Fitch rating agency has reconfirmed for the 2nd time this year Romania’s rating based on the ‘very good’ situation of public finances, as compared to other states in the region. The economic growth estimate for the next 3 years is also positive, 3.5% against the previous estimate of 2.8%. According to Fitch, the positive developments will be sustained by domestic demand, boosted by fiscal relaxation at the level of private consumption, as well as by a return of investors in the private sector. The agency also mentions that the banking sector in Romania is stable, despite the volatility of the external environment, the Romanian banks being well capitalized. In July, Moody’s rating agency estimated that the increase in competitiveness, the reduction of macro-economic imbalances and the recovery of the labour market and internal consumption would allow Romania to report an average growth of almost 3% in the coming years.
