Romanian PM Reshuffles Four Ministers
Romanian Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos on Tuesday announced new ministers for education, communication, transportation and for handling Romanians living abroad.
Calling for quicker reform, Ciolos nominated a manager at Renault cars, Sorin Buse, as transportation minister, and proposed Mircea Dumitru, Bucharest University rector, as education minister.
President Klaus Iohannis needs to approve the ministers. (Puterea)
Government Not Considering New Rules For First Home Program
The Romanian government has no plans to change conditions for the state-backed mortgage lending First Home program, said finance minister Anca Dragu.
She said funds available in banks are currently under analysis and will possibly be redistributed.
For this year, the state had an initial guarantee budget of RON1.69 billion for the program, allowing banks to give loans totaling RON3.38 billion.
Following high demand, the government supplemented the guarantee budget by RON500 million, which is now also nearly depleted. (Adevarul)
EC Investigates Romgaz, Transgaz, OMV Petrom
The European Commission investigation on the Romanian natural gas market is extremely serious, said Valentin Mircea, head of the prime minister’s control body and former vice-president of the antitrust authority.
Officials of the European Commission’s Directorate General for Competition and of the Competition Council in Romania on June 6 carried out unannounced inspections at the premises of Romgaz, OMV Petrom and Transgaz, key players in the natural gas sector.
“The Commission has concerns that the companies involved may have violated EU antitrust rules that prohibit cartels and restrictive business practices and/or the abuse of a dominant market position. The Commission is investigating potential anticompetitive practices in the transmission and supply of natural gas in Romania, in particular relating to suspected anticompetitive behavior aimed at hindering natural gas exports from Romania to other Member States,” the European Commission said at the time.
Romgaz and OMV Petrom are the largest local natural gas producers. The two are now covering the entire natural gas needs of Romania, because consumption decline has rendered imports, mostly from Russia, unnecessary. Transgaz is the natural gas pipeline system operator. (Puterea)
Brexit Poses Risks To Lending In Romania
In the first five months of 2016, banks granted consumer and mortgage loans totaling RON12 billion, 50% higher than in the same period last year, reminiscent of pre-crisis levels.
But is a consumption-driven economic growth sound? “We shouldn’t be scared but we should be cautious. It’s not about bank policies but the domestic and international situation. If there’s a disaster on the financial market, and there is already talk of that in London after the Brexit vote, then good loans can turn bad,” said economist Aurelian Dochia.
On the other hand, a central bank poll has found fewer and fewer businesses resort to bank loans and prefer to fund themselves.
“There is low demand from companies so banks are trying to cover areas where there is demand, namely the population. Household lending is safer than before the crisis because housing prices have adjusted and banks have become more cautious. Should we have a European crisis, then interest rates may rise considerably, hindering payback,” another specialist commented. (Evenimentul Zilei)
National Evaluation Pass Rate At 75%
The Education Ministry has announced the pass rate at the national evaluation exam for pupils finishing the eighth grade was 75.1%.
It said 111,598 candidates got scores equal to or above 5, while 253 students got perfect scores of 10. (Puterea)