January 27, 2023

january 27, 2023 Click here for a roundup of local and world news

ECONOMY Romania reports a record-high GDP increase for last year, from EUR 240 bln in 2021 to nearly EUR 290 bln, according to the National Strategy and Forecast Commission. For this year, however, the institution estimates a slow-down of the economic growth from 4.9% in 2022 to 2.8%. The inflation rate is also expected to drop significantly by the end of this year, from 16.4% in 2022 to 8%, and consumption growth is also predicted to drop to 2.4%, compared to 4.6% last year. The figures in the winter forecast, made public on Thursday, are not different from the ones in the autumn report, released in October. 


HEALTHCARE The number of respiratory infections in Romania dropped last week by almost one-quarter compared to the previous week, to 103,000 cases, the National Public Health Institute announced. The number is nonetheless 21% higher than the average weekly rate in 2015-2020. According to statistics, nearly 5,000 of them were flu cases. Since the start of the cold season, 36 people died from the flu, and nearly 1.5 million people got anti-flu vaccines.


DIPLOMACY The Romanian foreign minister Bogdan Aurescu had a bilateral meeting in Sibiu today with his Dutch counterpart, Wopke Bastiaan Hoekstra. The talks focused on Romania's Schengen accession and the ongoing efforts to further this important goal. Bogdan Aurescu reiterated that Romania's accession "will help strengthen the security of the EU as a whole and will give credibility to the Union." In turn, ministrer Hoekstra reiterated the Netherlands' active support for this process. Wopke Hoekstra also reconfirmed the Netherlands' commitment to consolidating NATO's deterrence and defence posture on the eastern flank, in the context of Russia's aggression in Ukraine, by contributing troops to the NATO Battle Group in Romania. The 2 officials also discussed the Romanian-Dutch bilateral relations. The meeting took place in the context of the Dutch official's visit to Romania for trilateral political consultations in Bucharest, together with the French diplomacy chief Catherine Colonna. Ahead of the talks, the 3 ministers made a joint visit to the French and Dutch troops stationed at the Cincu military base as part of the NATO Battle Group in Romania. In Bucharest, Catherine Colonna will be received by president Klaus Iohannis and PM Nicolae Ciucă.


COMMEMORATION The International Holocaust Remembrance Day, or the International Day in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust, is marked every year on January 27, under a resolution endorsed by the United Nations in 2005. In 1945, on January 27, Allied forces liberated the largest Nazi extermination camp, in Auschwitz-Birkenau, Poland. According to historians, the Holocaust resulted in the killing of 6 million Jewish people in Europe and millions of other ethnics by Germany's Nazi regime. Events and activities are organised on this day every year at the UN headquarters in New York and UN offices around the world. This year's theme is "Home and Belonging." In 2022, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution tabled by Israel, calling on all countries to condemn Holocaust denial and anti-Semitism, especially on social networks.


TENNIS Gabriela Ruse (Romania) / Marta Kostiuk (Ukraine) today lost to the defending champions, Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova (Czech Republic) 6-2, 6-2, in the doubles semi-finals of the Australian Open. This is the best performance for Ruse and Kostiuk in a Grand Slam event. Krejcikova and Siniakova hold a combined 6 Grand Slam doubles titles, 3 of them last year alone, when they only missed the Roland Garros. In the final, the Czech players take on Shuko Aoyama/Ena Shibahara, of Japan, at their first presence in a Grand Slam final after defeating Coco Gauff/Jessica Pegula (US). (AMP)


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Publicat: 2023-01-27 13:55:00
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