Financial Press Review, 17 February

The Ziarul Financiar writes that ‘analysts have started to see an improvement in the economic situation and are planning to improve forecasts for 2011’, after above-expectations data on the economic progression in 2010 has been made public.

‘Economy went into recession in the third quarter of 2008 and has been struggling to climb out ever since’, the newspaper writes.

The paper points out in another article that the number of the companies went into insolvency in January is ten times smaller than it was in January last year or in December 2010.

‘When will the real estate market bottom out?’, the Curierul Naţional wonders. The real estate market has dropped by 40 percent in the last couple of years and ‘continues to slide in 2011’, the newspaper points out.

Under the headline ‘Another shattered myth: FP drops below 0.6 lei on the Bourse: Where will the slide end?’, the Ziarul Financiar writes that in yesterday’s transaction, the FP shares ‘hit the lowest level since the 25 January floatation’.

‘Right now there are more FP share sellers than buyers on the market and this has led to the drop in the price’, below the investors’ expectations.

The Curierul Naţional opens today’s issue with an article entitled: ‘What will happen to the FP shares?’, which informs readers that ‘The FP could continue to lose its value in the following period of time’.

The Ziarul Financiar prints an article on ‘the collection of signatures and stampings on most of the documents issued by state institutions’. A document issued by a ministry could bear 41 signatures.

‘Romanian civil servants, even if they want to do their job well, they couldn’t because they are buried in papers’, the article reads. ‘Bureaucracy depends on two things: legislation volatility or incompatible regulations’, which makes people safeguard themselves and cover them in papers, and incompetence, because people who understand fast and forget hard are brave and are not afraid of taking responsibility’, the newspaper writes.

‘These cases of unjustified and excessive bureaucracy prove that the public administration system, which has been criticised as being oversized so many times, has not been subject to reforms, although over 100,000 people were laid off last year.’

Bureaucracy is reflected in the lack of single window system. Those who want to register a new car have to go to seven different places’, the newspaper points out.

Border corruption is the topic of an article in the Curierul Naţional, entitled: ‘Marica effect: the National Integrity Authority verifies the trade unionists’ assets’.

‘The scandal that broke on Tuesday following the statements made by the former chief of the Giurgiu customs, takes a new turn: the National Integrity Authority decided to verify the assets of 15 trade union leaders’.

The financial press also covers the dilemma: do we or do we not need a technocrat premier? Two years after saying that ‘the country must be governed by people that do not hide behind the democrats’, President Traian Băsescu ‘claims otherwise – he wants an independent premier’, the Ziarul Financiar writes under the headline ‘Stolojan contradicts Băsescu: Boc has to stay, we don’t need a technocrat premier’.

The daily Bursa writes that the PDL Vice-President, Theodor Stolojan, stated that he ‘does not think nominating a technocrat as prime minister would help the PDL clean up its image’ (...) ‘I do not think Romania is in the position in which the image of the governing party could be separated from the governing perception.’

Translated by: Raluca Mizdrea
MA Student, MTTLC, Buchrest University