Romania: Press review - March 9
Mar 9, 2010

Romania: Press review - March 9.
Bucharest, March 9 /Agerpres/ - Romania's national dailies of Tuesday give main coverage to rail workers being made redundant and the risks of awarding them redundancy payments; Senate Chairman Mircea Geoana likely to lose his office under an agreement between the parties in power; optimism over Romania's capital market on the developments in the Dow Jones derivatives traded on the Sibiu exchange; the number of obese people shooting up in Romania.


Adevarul remarks that the redundancy payments to more than 12,500 future unemployed rail workers and miners will use up the unemployment appropriations. As the Government ‘invests; in redundancy payments it will get rid of 12,500 public employees in two years, the paper says in relation to the rail workers to be made redundant.

The papers note that the Government ordinances under which thousands of rail workers and miners will be laid off in 2010 provide for redundancy payments equal to the average industrial wage of this January. The National Statistics Institute (INS) on Monday announced that the net average wage was RON 1,426 for an average gross wage of RON 1,967 in the first month of 2010, which puts the Government's redundancy spending at over RON 2.2 billion, or nearly 550 million euros.

Curierul national remarks that unemployment is rising and does not signal any halt too soon. Curentul reports that unemployment reached 8.3 percent this February, while Gandul carries a national map of jobs.


Bursa quotes Romania's representative with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Mihai Tanasescu as saying he believes the risk for the redundancy policy of the Romanian Government to have a negative impact on overall spending is real.

Tanasescu says it is very possible that such a situation will be reached, yet he hopes the economy will eventually recover. Asked whether this could lead to Romania raising another loan from the IMF, Tanasescu said this should not be written off. He says that he hopes a new loan will not be necessary and that the situation in which Romania is unable to repay the loan installments already granted to it will be avoided.



Curentul notes that although he has secured the support of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) to stay in office, Senate Chairman Mircea Geoana can no longer escape dismissal in the context of the new parliamentary architecture that comprises the ruling Democratic-Liberal Party (PD-L), the Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania (UDMR) and the Independent Group.

PD-L leaders on Monday decided to go on with requesting the dismissal of Mircea Geoana as chairman of the Senate but they got stuck when finding a replacement should their hasty plan succeeds, Evenimentul Zilei remarks.

The version winning the overwhelming majority of the unofficial options of the PD-L is Radu Berceanu, as that would also lead to the office of transport minister becoming vacant. At least in statements, Berceanu would not hear about that. Romania libera writes about what UDMR wants in exchange for its anti-Geoana vote. Curentul says the countdown has started for ousting Geoana from Senate, while Evenimentul Zilei notes that PD-L would behead Geoana but does not know what to put back.


Gandul reports that President Traian Basescu on Monday appointed former Romanian European Commissioner for Multilingualism Leonard Orban presidential adviser on European affairs.

Jurnalul national quotes former Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu of the opposition National Liberal Party (PNL) as saying Leonard Orban is a very valuable man and his use will benefit Romania.


Financiarul remarks that Romania is a key market in the strategy of Germany's Lufthansa air carrier, mentioning that in 2009, the company carried 600,000 passengers abroad its flights from Romania to Germany and Italy, up 6 percent from 2008.


Financiarul also remarks that the derivatives traded on the US Dow Jones index indicate optimism in Romania. The first week of March witnessed a trade volume of more than 1,700 contracts traded on the Sibiu Exchange in derivatives backed by the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DEDJIA) index. In just five trade sessions, the paper adds, investors traded almost one third of the February's volume. The quotations for these instruments advanced 1.63 percent from the first day of trade in 2010.


Romania is ranked among Europe's top ten countries in terms of obesity. Rich food and the lack of exercise have turned 30 percent of the Romanian youth in obese people, according to doctor Constantin Dumitrache of the C.I Parhon National Endocrinology Institute of Bucharest.

Openness to the West has facilitated access to the Romanian market of junk food, fast food and artificially processed food. Currently, there are more noxious foods on the shelves in Romania than healthy foods, Adevarul remarks. AGERPRES
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