April 15, 2026 UPDATE
A roundup of local and world news
Newsroom, 15.04.2026, 20:00
ECONOMY The International Monetary Fund lowered its economic growth forecast for Romania this year from 1.4% forecast in October to 0.7%, according to the international financial institution’s latest report. The IMF has also revised its forecasts for global economic growth due to the war in Iran. In its annual report, the institution warns that the global economy could be on the brink of recession if crude prices stay above USD 100 per barrel until 2027. Governments will be tempted to take fiscal measures to mitigate the effects of high energy prices, the IMF says, warning, however, that the situation will lead to a significant increase in budget deficits and governmental debt.
VISIT The Romanian finance minister Alexandru Nazare’s visit to the United States included talks in Washington on Wednesday with the head of the World Bank, Ajay Banga. The talks focused on financing nuclear projects in Romania, with an emphasis on investments in retrofitting the Cernavodă power plant, viewed as an essential pillar of national energy security. The Romanian official described the meeting as a first at this level of openness for our country, at a time when Romania is rapidly gaining confidence and becoming an increasingly relevant regional actor. The agenda also included the development of natural gas infrastructure, especially the Vertical Corridor project, carried out with the involvement of Transgaz. In addition to the spring meetings of the World Bank and the IMF in Washington, the finance minister’s agenda also includes meetings at the White House, the US Treasury and the Department of Commerce.
HACKERS Between September 2024 and March 2026, a group of hackers with ties to the Kremlin hacked into almost 300 email accounts belonging mainly to authorities in Ukraine, but also in Romania, Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia, according to an analysis by the cyber threat research organisation Ctrl-Alt-Intel, quoted by Reuters. The compromised targets operated in the military and governmental fields, and the purpose of the extensive cyber-attack was, among other things, to prevent the detection of Russian spies or to gather potentially compromising information on high-ranking officials of the respective states. In Romania, the hackers compromised at least 67 email accounts of the Romanian Air Force, including some belonging to NATO bases, and at least the account of a high-ranking military officer. The defence ministry announced on Wednesday that the email addresses used by employees of the institution and compromised by the hackers linked to Russia did not contain classified data, but were used for administrative activities and for the circulation of public information.
THEFT Three men are on trial in the Netherlands for the theft of a 2,500-year-old gold helmet and three bracelets, part of Romania’s national heritage, which were stolen from a Dutch museum early last year. In January 2025, the thieves used explosives and sledgehammers to break into the Drents Museum in northern Netherlands. Police arrested the 3 suspects within days, but the location of the treasure remained a mystery until earlier this month, when the Dutch authorities presented the helmet and two of the bracelets at a press conference held at the museum. The artifacts were recovered after authorities reached an agreement with two of the suspects; the third one denied any involvement in the heist. The suspects, identified as Jan B. (21), Douglas Chesley W. (37), and Bernhard Z. (35), are charged with theft and property damage to the museum. The third bracelet is yet to be found.
ATTACK A new armed attack on a middle school in the central Turkish province of Kahramanmaraş on Wednesday killed 4 (a teacher and 3 students) and wounded 20 others, Anadolu reports. The attack was carried out by an eighth-grader who brought weapons in a backpack and opened fire at random after entering 2 classrooms. The suspected attacker also died, the Kahramanmaraş governor Mukerrem Unluer said, adding that it was not clear whether he had shot himself on purpose or had been injured during the incident. The official also said the weapons may have belonged to the suspect’s father, a former police officer. The incident came just a day after another gun attack in the southeastern district of Siverek, where a 19-year-old former student opened fire at his former high school, wounding 16 people before killing himself. (AMP)
