January 13, 2026 UPDATE
A roundup of local and world news
Newsroom, 13.01.2026, 20:00
HEATING Romania is safe in spite of the current extreme temperatures. The system is operational, reserves are sound and the electricity supply is secured, the energy minister Bogdan Ivan said in a social media post. He explained that natural gas storage facilities are 65% full, with 200 million cubic meters more than in the corresponding period last year. Bogan Ivan also said that Romania has the capacity to cover the increased demand these days, and that domestic sources, imports and extraction from deposits are balanced. However, thousands of residential buildings in Bucharest, including hospitals, do not have hot water and heating within normal parameters, because of the infrastructure that is about 40 years old. Homeless people in several cities receive assistance from city halls and NGOs. In the next 24 hours, temperatures are expected to increase, although they will stay below multi-annual average levels in the north, centre, and east of the country, with highs ranging between minus 6 and 6 degrees Celsius.
VISIT A delegation of MPs led by the Speaker of the Romanian Senate, Mircea Abrudean, is on an official visit to Poland on Tuesday and Wednesday. According to Abrudean, the two bilateral meetings on Tuesday with the Marshal and the Deputy Marshal of the Polish Senate, Malgorzata Kidawa-Blonska and Szymon Holownia, respectively, highlighted the close collaboration between the two countries and the strengthened strategic partnership. Mircea Abrudean also said the cooperation between the two countries in the region is extremely important in this period marked by tensions, and their shared views as NATO and EU member states are critical to the Eastern Flank, as is the excellent cooperation in multilateral formats such as the Bucharest 9, the 3 Seas Initiative and the Romania-Poland-Turkey trilateral platform. He added that the talks also covered joint support for Ukraine in the fourth year of war, and the implementation of the Romania-Poland Cooperation Agreement in the defence industry, signed in 2023.
ECONOMY The Romanian economy grew by 0.8% last year, as against the 1.3% growth rate forecast in June last year and the 2.1% rate estimated in early 2025, according to the latest ‘Global Economic Prospects’ report, released on Tuesday by the World Bank. Also, this year Romania’s GDP is expected to grow by 1.3%, compared to a 1.9% growth rate forecast in June last year by the World Bank. Romania’s economic growth rate is expected to improve in 2027 to 1.9%, below the 2.5% rate predicted by the World Bank in mid-2025.
INCOMES One in three Romanians is considering an additional job in early 2026, in the context of higher taxes, rising food and utility prices and pressure on family budgets, data from a recruitment platform indicates. Demand for flexible activities is quickly increasing, with occasional work in retail, cleaning, construction, repairs or rural households becoming the norm for more and more Romanians, the source said. The main social categories interested in making additional incomes are unskilled youth (16-25 years old), who account for 21% of the total. Other categories include active pensioners, aged over 60 (19% of the total) as well as mothers who work from home, aged between 20 and 45 (18%). On the other hand, employees aged between 25 and 55 looking for additional work account for 22% of the total. (AMP)
