Romania To Host Pre-NATO Summit Meeting This Fall
Romanian President Klaus Iohannis met with Polish President Bronislaw Bokorowski to discuss the strategic partnership between the two countries.
The two heads of state announced Romania and Poland will host two major events for the region, to strengthen NATO’s eastern flank. The Polish president also warned Russian President Vladimir Putin might break the Minsk ceasefire agreement.
Romania will host a meeting of heads of state this fall, ahead of the NATO summit, which will take place in Warsaw in 2016. (Adevarul)
Parliament Adopts Bill Limiting Cash Payments
Romania’s Chamber of Deputies adopted a bill Wednesday limiting cash payments for businesses.
The bill has already been adopted in the Senate and also limits cash transactions for individuals at RON50,000 per day. (Adevarul)
IMF: Romania Has Trouble Overseeing Public Investments
Romania shows weaknesses in the evaluation and oversight of public investments and lack of timeliness in approval of annual budgets, but scores well on 30 of 36 criteria considered in the IMF’s Fiscal Transparency Evaluation report.
The International Monetary Fund underlines the need for further improvements in fiscal transparency, as there are high GDP forecasting errors, on average around 4% of GDP, weaknesses in the evaluation and oversight of public investments and lack of timeliness in approval of annual budgets, according to the report.
The Fund showed Romania is rated as good or advanced on 15 of the 36 dimensions in the Fiscal Transparency Code, while 15 dimensions other are rated as basic, and 6 regarded as yet to be achieved. (Romania Libera)
Trade Deficit Narrows To EUR176.4M In January
Romania’s exports rose faster than imports in the first month of the year and the country’s trade deficit narrowed to 176.4 million euros, the statistics office said Thursday.
In January 2014, the trade gap was EUR252.6 million.
Exports rose 6.4% on the year to EUR4.19 billion, while imports were 4.1% higher, at EUR4.36 billion, the data showed. (Romania Libera)
Over 1.3 Million Romanians Have Chronic Kidney Disease
Over 1.3 million Romanians suffer from chronic illnesses of the kidneys, associated with risk factors such as obesity, diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure and other metabolic disorders.
“Chronic kidney disease is often under-diagnosed and 7% of the population has it. Diabetes and hyperglycemia cause 60 to 70% of chronic diseases of the kidney,” said Cristian Serafinceanu, head of the association for metabolic and nutritional studies.
He added the disease may progress without any symptoms until its final stages, when dialysis is required and called for a screening program for early detection. (Romania Libera)