January 16, 2025
A roundup of domestic and international news
Newsroom, 16.01.2025, 13:55
Government. In today’s meeting, the Romanian Government is to adopt the decision regarding the organization of the presidential elections in May this year, as well as the related electoral calendar. Organized on time, on November 24, 2024, the first round was invalidated by the Constitutional Court (CCR), which, based on documents provided by the Supreme Council of National Defense (CSAT), invoked the interference of a so-called state actor. The participants in the second round, scheduled for December 8, were the independent nationalist Călin Georgescu, accused of connections with Putinist Russia, and the Save Romania Union (USR) leader (in opposition), Elena Lasconi. The term of the current president, Klaus Iohannis, was to expire on December 21st, but his office was extended until the election of the new head of state, validated by the CCR.
IMF. A mission of the International Monetary Fund will visit Bucharest, between February 3-7, announced Geoff Gottlieb, regional representative of the IMF for Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe. The IMF team will meet with representatives of the new Romanian Government and the National Bank of Romania to analyze recent financial and economic developments and update the macroeconomic outlook. The mission will be led by Joong Shik Kang, who replaced Jan Kees Martijn as head of the IMF mission in Romania. Currently, Romania does not have a financing agreement with the IMF, but the financial institution annually evaluates the evolution of the Romanian economy, based on a mandatory surveillance exercise for all member states.
Budget. The 2025 budget will register a deficit of 7% of the Gross Domestic Product and 7 percent will be allocated to investments, the government coalition in Romania has announced. The Social-Democratic prime minister, Marcel Ciolacu, has assured that taxes and duties and the Value Added Tax will not increase. The executive wants to draft the Budget Law by the end of the month, and in the first week of February the Parliament to adopt it.
Russia. “Nikolai Patrusev, advisor to Russian President Vladimir Putin, uses the same aggressive propaganda and disinformation themes with which Moscow has intoxicated the world in recent years”, reads a statement by the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The reaction comes after Patrushev said, in an interview in the Russian media, that both Ukraine, invaded by Moscow’s troops, and the neighbouring Republic of Moldova (ex-Soviet, predominantly Romanian-speaking) might cease to exist as independent states this year. The Romanian diplomacy stresses that these repetitive public statements cannot hide the reality: the fact that Russia is waging a war of aggression against Ukraine and that it is carrying out massive and systematic hybrid actions against the Republic of Moldova. The Romanian MFA reaffirms that Russia aims to create divisions in Europe.
National Bank. In the first monetary policy meeting of the year, the Board of Directors of the National Bank maintained the monetary policy interest rate at the level of 6.5% per year, although the inflation rate increased in the last quarter of 2024. The NBR decision aims to ensure and maintain price stability in the medium term, in a way that contributes to the achievement of sustainable economic growth. The board of directors reiterates that, in the current context, the balanced mix of macroeconomic policies and the implementation of structural reforms, including the use of European funds to stimulate long-term growth, are essential for macroeconomic stability and strengthening the capacity of the Romanian economy to cope with adverse developments. According to experts, the NBR could relax the monetary policy in 2025, but probably only from the second half of the year, pending clearer perspectives on the evolution of inflation and fiscal measures. In 2024, the NBR reduced the reference interest rate twice, from 7 to 6.5%.
Tennis. Romanian tennis player Jaqueline Cristian qualified, for the first time, in the third round of a Grand Slam tournament, on Thursday, in Melbourne, after defeating Italian Lucia Bronzetti 7-5, 7-5 at the Australian Open. Cristian (26 years old, 82 WTA) won after two hours and four minutes of play. In the third round, the Romanian will face the German Eva Lys, who also defeated Varvara Gracheva (France) on Thursday, 6-2, 3-6, 6-4. In the women’s doubles, the Romanian Irina Begu and the Brazilian Ingrid Martins were defeated in the first round by the pair Peyton Stearns (USA)/Luisa Stefani (Brazil), 6-2, 7-6 (7/3), after an hour and 27 minutes. (mi)
