December 20, 2013
A roundup of domestic and international news.
România Internațional, 20.12.2013, 12:00
Romania’s economic growth rate for 2012 has been revised downwards by 0.1%, from 0.7% to 0.6%, according to data made public today by the National Statistics Institute. In April the Statistics Institute announced an economic growth forecast for 2012 of 0.7%, way over the previous estimations of 0.3%. In the first nine months of 2013 Romania’s GDP went up by 2.7% thanks to industry and agriculture.
The European Union has lost its ‘AAA’ credit rating from Standard&Poor’s, based on a deterioration of its financial profile and a weakening of the group’s cohesion. The EU’s long-term credit rating has been downgraded from ‘AAA’ to “AA +’ with a stable outlook, while its short-term rating has been kept at ‘A-1 plus’, the agency announced. The downgrade came after several EU countries such as France, Italy and Spain had their rating lowered.
Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovici announced on Thursday that Ukraine might adopt parts of Russia’s recently founded Customs Union with other former Soviet Republics. We remind you that on Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Viktor Yanukovici singed an accord under which Russia gives Ukraine a 15-billion dollar bailout and gas discount. The opposition in Kiev is furious and has announced new protests.
The situation in Ukraine, the crisis in Syria and the Central African Republic, migration and EU enlargement are high on the agenda of the winter European Council in Brussels. President Traian Basescu represents Romania at the meeting. On Thursday the heads of state and government discussed about the EU’s common security and defence policy and about the envisaged Economic and Monetary Union.
Timisoara celebrates today the day when the city became ‘free from communism’. In this western Romanian city, the popular revolt, which had started on December 16, took on dramatic tones when the authorities were trying to get rid of the evidence of repressive activity by the security forces the days before. On December 20 over 150,000 workers took to the streets shouting slogans against the regime. This unexpected movement of the working class forced the army back into barracks and turned Timisoara into ‘the first city free from communism’.
