August 8, 2022 UPDATE

UKRAINE UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, on Monday called for the access of international inspectors to the nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia after Ukraine and Russia traded accusations over the recent shelling of the largest nuclear facility in Europe situated in an area occupied by the Russian troops in southern Ukraine. The facility has been shelled twice in the past days but no radioactive leak has been detected. Ukrainian authorities do not rule out the risk of a nuclear catastrophe in the region and have made an appeal for setting up a demilitarized area around the plant. In turn Russia hopes that some of the Western countries with big influence over Ukraine, will use this influence to prevent further shelling of this nuclear facility by the Ukrainian army, Dmitri Peskov, spokesman for the Kremlin, has said.

COVID-19 Health Minister Alexandru Rafila on Monday said the total number of weekly Covid-19 infections had been reduced by five thousand in Romania of late. According to the official, this drop is likely to carry on after one week or two. On Monday, authorities in Romania announced roughly 4,700 new infections, most of them in capital Bucharest, in Hunedoara, in the west, Cluj in the north-west and Brasov in central Romania. Almost 43 hundred people are being treated in hospitals 274 of whom in ICUs. 14 related fatalities have also been reported in the past 24 hours.

AGRICULTURE According to Agriculture Minister Petre Daea, by 2027 Romania must have some 2.6 million hectares of irrigable land for which 1.5 billion Euros will be earmarked from the national budget. The minister wrote on a social network that the implementation of the government's programme on upgrading the irrigation system must be done every day, without interruption. According to official data released, almost 243,000 hectares of land in 30 Romanian counties have been affected by drought this year.

RATE The monetary policy rate has been increased as of Monday by 0.75%, to 5.5% per year. This is the sixth increase in the key rate this year, a tool by which the Romanian Central Bank tries to keep inflation at bay. Before the decision announced by the Central bank on Friday, the 3-month ROBOR index went up from 8.11% to 8.12% per year, reaching 8.14% per year on Monday. Financial experts are expecting this index to go up significantly, which will raise variable interest rates on loans. Interest rates on mortgage loans have gone up by more than 50% since the beginning of the year and have almost doubled as against six years ago. Inflation in July exceeded 15% and is expected to stand at this level in the third quarter. The Central Bank will present a new quarterly report on inflation on Tuesday.

(bill)