Romania: Press review - February 24
Feb 24, 2010

Romania: Press review - February 24.
Bucharest, Feb 24 /Agerpres/ - Romania's national dailies of Wednesday give main coverage to the redundancies in the public sector slated for 2010; the tax incentives granted by the Government to boost hire of the unemployed; the ranking of Romania's top 10 banks getting reorganised; the top of Romanian companies in terms of modern retail trade.


Romania libera reports that the Romanian Government has pledged to cut staff costs by 0.2 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by making public employees redundant and diminish the pay of long hours and pay bonuses, so that it may get the 3rd and 4th disbursements of a stand-by loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The pledge to further cut staff costs was included in the letter of intent to the stand-by arrangement with the IMF.

Ziarul financiar remarks that the Government attempts to narrow the tax deficit to 5.9 percent of the GDP in 2010, which would entail a 2 percent of the GDP structural adjustment. As anticipated in September 2009, most of the measures designed to lead to this deficit will regard spending (some 80 percent of the total adjustment against the basic projections). The paper notes that the Government's pledge before the IMF to cut staff spending by 240 million euros would require making 14,000 people redundant.


Curierul National remarks that Finance Minister Sebastian Vladescu and Labour Minister Mihai Seitan have been threatened by Prime Minister Emil Boc to be dismissed at a meeting of the Government on Tuesday.

Boc allegedly blamed them for having generated image problems. Seitan triggered a backlash by stating that child allowances will be disbursed differently against parents' income, while Vladescu posited that pensions would be taxed, shortly after which he offered substantial nuances to his statement. Boc refused to comment on the allegation of him having threatening Vladescu and Seitan to dismiss, saying that the inside talks of the Government are not for the public opinion to learn.


The Government on Tuesday unveiled incentives for young people and companies hiring unemployed people and a reduction in para-taxation. The papers quote entrepreneurs as arguing the Government is giving out with one hand and taking back with two. The series of anti-crisis measures suggested by the Government includes speeding up the designing of a mechanism that will allow young people starting up in business to qualify for incentives; cutting the number of para-fiscal rates and taxes and passing a draft ordinance under which companies hiring unemployed people will be exempted from social security contributions for six months if they keep the newly hired for one year. Much as in the case of the measures unveiled in 2009, of which very few were adopted, entrepreneurs are again skeptical over the application of the new measures. They argue that the Government is giving them with one hand and taking back from them with two hands, and that the anti-crisis measures unveiled are ineffective, Curierul national remarks.


The business papers report that Government-run CEC Bank jumped up to the 5th place in the top of the best 10 Romanian banks, on Government funding and a rise by 13 percent in loans to individuals.

The crisis year 2009 has seriously upset the top 10 Romanian banks ranking: the market share of Banca Comerciala Romana (BCR), the largest local creditor, slipped to below 20 percent; its Austrian competitor Raiffeisen Bank slipped to place number 7, while Banca Transilvania, one of the best faring banks in 2007-2008, declined to number 8.


Bursa remarks that Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain, the countries derogatorily dubbed PIIGS, an acronym used by economists to indicate that these five countries are running excessive deficits, are endangering the European economy. One of the outcomes of the situation in which the five find themselves is a reduction in their commercial exchanges with other European Union member states and, implicitly, Romania. Thus, except for a 51.1 percent increase in Romania's Irish imports, imports from Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain plummeted in the first 11 months of 2009.


The Germans have conquered a 60 percent share in Romania's modern retail trade, Ziarul Financiar reports, mentioning that Germany's Lidl&Schwartz has outperformed France's Carrefour in the ranking of the largest local retailers after buying the Plus discount shop network.

Following the integration of the 96 shops taken over, Lidl&Schwartz, which is also operating a network of 45 Kaufland hypermarkets, will reach an estimated business turnover of 1.3 billion euros in Romania, compared with Carrefour's 2009 reported 1.13 billion euros for 23 hypermarkets and 25 supermarkets. AGERPRES
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