Financial Press Review, 28 June

The top of Romania’s largest companies, the state budget deficit that appeared again since May, the inflation outlook and the NAFA restructuring are the highlighted topics in the financial press review.

The Ziarul Financiar opened with: ‘Top 50 largest companies.’

Over 30 companies of the top 50 players in the local economy reported growing businesses in 2010 compared to 2009, given that the previous year only ten companies succeed in finishing the year with higher sales.

On the first three spots there were OMV-Petrom, Dacia and Rompetrol Rafinare.

All three companies were topics for the financial press articles.

By 2004, as it was a state company, Petrom ‘has been a golden goose for the politicians.’

Now it is the greatest contributor to state, the Capital magazine revealed in an article entitled ‘Last state dinosaur with immunity for 20 years.’

It was about Constantin Roibu, general manager of Oltchim, who ‘seemed to have taken over the Vâlcea mill.’

The quoted weekly a published article entitled ‘Dacia Metamorphosis: from “it can be done anyway” to Japanese rigor, while the Bursa headlined: ‘Constanţa Court ruled that Rompetrol Rafinare does not owe the state any money.’

Under the heading ‘The government reduced staff costs by 20 percent, but it cannot control the waste of goods and services’, the Ziarul Financiar noted that ‘the budget returned to deficit in May’.

‘The expenses on goods and services increased every year, as the crisis failed to decimate them’, the newspaper wrote.

The Bursa published an article entitled ‘Although gas industry has exploded, NBR believed that inflation will not increase. Analysts contradicted NBR’.

’More expensive products and pressure on inflation - these will be the impact of higher gas prices used in industry’, the economic analysts contacted by the newspaper said.

‘Inflation will reach 10 percent at the end of the year’, Liviu Voinea, Group President of Applied Economics estimated.

Under the heading ‘Financial Guard Scandal: 1000 out of 1300 employees received the notice of dismissal’, the Curierul Naţional reported that ‘the unions said they would appeal against the order NAFA’ as ‘the notices of dismissal were issued in violation of the law’.

‘Employees cannot possibly receive the notice of dismissal and then be examined’, the Bursa also revealed.

Under the heading ‘Mironescu, called to NAD for hearings’, the Curierul Naţional wrote: ‘The Mironescu group dealt with “state capture”, a notion expressing the highest form of corruption, respectively that widespread corruption, which required many people, well-placed and influential persons’, the investigators said.

‘ “The criminal organization” that would have been formed, according to the prosecutors under the National Anticorruption Directorate in Vama Constanţa, might have damaged the state budget with amounts between 50 000 and two million euros with each shipment.’

‘The sums of money were required with a daily frequency’, the newspaper noted.

Translated by: Iulia Florescu
MA Student, MTTLC, Bucharest University