THE WEEK IN REVIEW

January 8-14, 2023

Newsroom, 14.01.2023, 19:20

COVID, flu and lack of medicine in Romania

The Romanian healthcare system has to cope, during this period, with a large number of infections with seasonal flu and COVID, but also with a new strain of coronavirus that appeared this week in Romania as well. Specialists estimate that the peak of the flu wave will be reached in the coming weeks, and a decrease in the number of cases will only occur in the second half of next month. An important contribution to the increase in the number of patients, specialists say, will also be made by the schools that opened their doors to a new module on Monday, in full state of epidemiological alert.

The large number of illnesses amplifies the crisis caused by the lack of some medicines in pharmacies, especially pediatric ones based on paracetamol, ibuprofen or some antibiotics. After a series of meetings with drug manufacturers and distributors, as well as with representatives of the pharmaceutical industry, the Minister of Health, Alexandru Rafila, gave assurances that there is no crisis in terms of the availability of anti-inflammatory and anti-thermal drugs in Romania. Alexandru Rafila: “In Romania there is no crisis of either ibuprofen or paracetamol, unlike other countries in Europe, which currently have discontinuities in the supply of paracetamol. In Romania we dont have this problem thanks to the drug factories that produce these substances here, in our country, and there are both versions for adults and for pediatric use”.

Drug manufacturers say that they will continue to ensure the supply of these products. The situation is much more complicated in the case of drugs to treat cancer patients. According to the Federation of Associations of Cancer Patients, patients have been complaining since the beginning of the year that seven anti-cancer drugs cannot be found anywhere. The Minister of Health claims, on the other hand, that only three medicines are missing, two of which are in storage.

Economic measures and record trade deficit

The National Bank of Romania has increased the monetary policy interest rate to 7% per year, in an attempt to slow down inflation and the increase in prices. The Central Bank specialists estimate that, with this measure, the annual inflation rate will decrease slightly in this quarter and more sharply later, so that, from the summer the indicator will no longer exceed 10%. However, the new increase in the key interest rate will most likely lead to increases in the interest rates charged by commercial banks, especially in the case of loans, but the anticipated drop in inflation, experts say, may represent a signal that the interest rate increase process is nearing the end.

Economic analyst Dragoş Cabat believes that it is important to continue the trend of increasing the key interest rate to ensure that inflation will reach a ceiling and then take a downward trajectory.

Dragos Cabat: “It is important that this trend of increasing the monetary policy interest continued, so that we have a slowdown in the growth of inflation as quickly as possible. This is the most important thing now for the Romanian economy, more important than economic growth and than the loans that about 600,000 Romanians have, which, of course, are affected by this interest rate increase”.

After more than two years of pandemics, with an ongoing war close to its borders, Romania’s trade balance deficit is not doing great either. The National Statistics Institute has announced a record 31 billion euros in the first 11 months of 2022, almost 10 billions more than in the same period of 2021.

Economic analyst Constantin Rudniţchi:

“This is an absolute record in Romanian history. It can be explained by the fact that we go through, an inflationist period which is also felt at European level. We have an important rise in imports, no doubt about it. But beyond this explanation for the high inflation level, Romania definitely has a problem, which is the huge level of imports while domestic production and exports cannot cover the national economy needs.”

Meanwhile, the Bucharest Government is trying to take out loans from the local and foreign market to cover the budget deficit of around 32 billion euros estimated for this year and the old deficit that needs to be refinanced.

Bilateral talks

Talks to solve the problems signaled by the Romanian side as regards Ukraine’s Law on national minorities, recently adopted and promulgated by Kyiv, continue. The Romanian Foreign Minister, Bogdan Aurescu, discussed on Wednesday, over the phone, with his Ukrainain counterpart Dmitro Kuleba, and agreed to launch comprehensive talks on this matter, to include meetings at the level of experts and of foreign ministers. The Law sparked concerns in Bucharest, because the representatives of the Romanian community in Ukraine have not been consulted in relation with the document, which was endorsed in the absence of a new consultation of the Venice Commission. Moreover, at the end of last year, the Romanian side sent a list of the provisions of the law that it considered to have a negative impact on the Romanians living in the neighboring country.

Also this week, Bogdan Aurescu talked over the phone with his Swedish counterpart, Tobias Billstrom, about his country’s Schengen accession. Romania enjoys the support of Sweden, Billstrom said, adding that his country, which holds the half-year rotating presidency of the Council of the EU, promises to get actively involved and support Romania join Schengen. In turn, Bogdan Aurescu emphasized the importance of the coordination, by the Swedish presidency, of the dialogue with all European partners involved in decision-making. The interest in this topic was also expressed this week, on the occasion of the launch, in Bucharest, of the Swedish presidency of the Council of the EU. (MI/EE)