Romania: Press review - January 22

Bucharest, Jan 22 /Agerpres/ - The Romanian dailies on Friday carry reports on the IMF officials' reassurance for Romania that there are no recommendations on the introduction of new taxes; the upward revision of the economic growth forecast; automaker Ford's plans to ship 90 percent of the future production in Craiova (southern Romania) to foreign markets; and a new possibility to negotiate futures contracts on the Dow Jones Industrial Average index on the Sibiu Commodities Exchange.

Chief of the International Monetary Fund's monitoring mission in Romania Jeffrey Franks said on Thursday there will be certain modifications to the additional letter to the agreement with the IMF, following the review of the Romanian economic developments, but he added such modifications will not be ‘radical'. The Romanian representative at the IMF makes one issue clear: there is no recommendation from the IMF and the European Commission to modify the current tax legislation by making up new taxes, Cotidianul reports.

There is no recommendation from the IMF and the European Commission to modify the current tax legislation. A possible tax on wealth should be analysed in a public debate, to see whether it is adequate or not, Romanian representative at the IMF Mihai Tanasescu is quoted by Evenimentul zilei as saying. Other headlines on this topic: 'FinMin Vladescu: The IMF agreement will be revised' (Adevarul) and 'The IMF might disburse us the money, even though we missed the inflation target' (Romania libera).

The economists begin revising upwards their predictions of the growth to be seen by the Romanian economy this year, after the industry output and exports returned to a rise in the last months of 2009 and the bankers already signal there is an increased interest of the companies in lending, Ziarul financiar says.

The International Monetary Fund, that usually makes some of the most pessimistic predictions, now sees a 1.3 percent growth of the Romanian economy in 2010, much above the previous estimate of 0.5 percent. The Romanian government too anticipates the economy will expand 1.3 percent, while the National Bank of Romania's predicted growth is 1.5 percent.

The most optimistic forecast comes from rating agency Moody's, that expects 2.3 percent economic growth this year, above its previous estimate of 1.2 percent. Fitch agency analysts are also optimistic, as they anticipate 2 percent growth of the Romanian economy, the Bucharest-based dailies report.

Ford Romania will invest more than 100 million euros in programmes meant to train the workers at its production facility based in Craiova (southern Romania) in the next three years and it plans to ship 90 percent of the output to the foreign markets in 2010 too, Ford Europe vice president Wolfgang Schneider said on Thursday. Last year, 96 percent of the 300 commercial vehicles were shipped to such European markets as Germany, Britain and Bulgaria, reports Romania libera.

The controversial project of setting up two national energy companies - Electra and Energetica respectively - was unveiled at Thursday's meeting of the Romanian Supreme Defence Council, with state secretary at the Economy Ministry Tudor Serban saying the project will begin being debated by the government next week, Curierul Natioal announces.

The authorities want to reorganise the national energy system by merging the most important electricity production- and mining companies controlled by the Economy Ministry into two entities.

The investors in the Money Financial and Commodities Exchange (Sibex) based in Sibiu (central Romania) will be able to trade futures contracts on the Dow Jones Industrial Average starting Friday, Financiarul announces. According to Sibex president, the new instruments have quarterly maturity, in March, June and September respectively.

There is hope for job-seekers: recruitment has started again, but it will be conducted by mid-year only, the national economic dailies report.

Romanian-born Florin Diacu, who has been teaching celestial mechanics at the University of Victoria, Canada for 20 years, wrote a book about mega-disasters and how they can be anticipated by mathematic calculation. His book 'Mega Disasters. The Science of Predicting the Next Catastrophe' was published by Princeton University Press and has been presented by the Wall Street Journal this week, Gandul reports.

Parents are facing two major dangers, as too much Internet is bad for their children and forbidding them to go online makes the children aggressive. A 13-year-old boy from the western Timis county committed suicide, while a 15-year-old youth from Dambovita (southern Romania) killed his mother. The two youngsters committed such extreme aggression after their parents banned them from surfing the Internet, Adevarul reports.

The Romanian women's sabre team came second at the World Cup in Budapest, after being defeated by France 45-29, Friday's sport papers report. AGERPRES

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