September 12, 2025 UPDATE
A roundup of local and world news
Newsroom, 12.09.2025, 20:20
IMF The IMF representatives believe the fiscal packages endorsed by the government in Bucharest were necessary and are essential for the state’s financial balance. They believe that new measures should be taken in 2027 in order to cut the budget deficit to 3% of the GDP and continue to keep the public debt under control. These are the main conclusions of the IMF assessment mission, which ended its visit to Bucharest on Friday. The IMF experts have forecast an economic growth of 1% in 2025 and of 1.4% in 2026 for Romania, lower than the forecast in April. At the same time, they recommended the Central Bank that the process of reducing the key interest rate be resumed only after it is sure the inflation is on a sustainable downward trend. The continuation of the structural reforms, including in the field of state-owned companies be done concurrently with a better absorption of the European funds and with the process of building a proper environment for attracting investment. On the last day of their visit to Bucharest, during a meeting with Prime Minister Bolojan, the IMF delegation said that Romania’s fiscal and economic situation allows for the continuation of reforms and for capitalizing on the development opportunities in the following years. According to a communiqué of the Executive, Ilie Bolojan ensured the IMF delegation the government would carry on reforms and fiscal consolidation measures. This way, budgetary resources will be channeled towards investment and the process of streamlining the economy, the Romanian official went on to say.
NATO NATO Secretary General, Mark Rutte announced in Brussels on Friday that the North Atlantic Alliance is launching a new operation entitled ‘Eastern Sentry’ to consolidate its defence on the Eastern Flank in response to the incursion of numerous Russian drones in the airspace of Poland. “It’s reckless and unacceptable. We can’t have Russian drones entering allied air space”, the NATO Secretary General went on to say. The mission will include a varied range of resources, which will integrate air and ground bases. Allies such as Denmark, France, the UK and Germany have already committed to the mission with other set to join, Rutte says. NATO’s top military official, Supreme Allied Commander Europe Alexus Grynkewich said that “the alliance would defend every inch of its territory”.
DRILL Over 5 thousand troops from 10 NATO allies are going to participate in the multi-national drill DACIAN FALL 2025, a.k.a DAFA 25, held in Romania and Bulgaria. According to a communiqué released by the Ministry of National Defence on Friday, over 5 thousand servicemen with 12 hundred pieces of technical equipment from Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Italy, Luxembourg, North Macedonia, Poland, Portugal, Romania and Spain will be participating in the aforementioned drill over October 20 and November 13. DAFA 25 is marking the final stage of bringing up to the brigade level of NATO battle groups in Romania and Bulgaria. Romania participates with the 282 Armour Brigade and other units subordinated to the Multinational Brigade Southeast jointly with units from ground, air, maritime and cyber forces. The first convoys of military equipment will be entering Romania starting September 20th.
OECD The secretary general of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Mathias Cormann, will be paying a formal visit to Romania next week for talks with the authorities in Bucharest. According to the agenda announced by the government, Mathias Cormann will be meeting Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan on Monday and then he will be participating in the meeting of the National Committee for Romania’s accession to the OECD. Cormann is expected to be meeting the Senate President, Mircea Abrudean. In June 2022, Romania kicked off talks for its OECD accession, which involves the implementation of the highest standards of economic and fiscal policies, decisional transparency and sectoral. At present the organization boasts 38 member states including the world’s main economies. Apart for Romania, there are seven other candidate countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Croatia, Indonesia, Peru and Thailand.
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