Financial Press Review, November 19

The Ziarul Financiar opens with an article entitled "Probing for 1.4 billion euros. Isărescu brought the banks and finances at the same table to discuss the state funding."

The main theme: the interest tat could be refinanced with bonds that fall due on November 29th.

The meeting – the newspaper writes – may seem surprising considering that the State consistently argues that it has sufficient liquidity.

The same newspaper comments upon yesterday"s statements of Cătălin Păuna, chief economist of the World Bank Office in Romania.

n 2011, am economic growth is expected in all EU countries that adhered in 2004 and 2007.

In our country, where exports have a small meaning in the forming of the gross domestic product, "the economic growth will have to be based on mobilizing the domestic resources, and the expected increase in wages will have an important role in stimulating demand since 2011, but an important role in the GDP recovery may also consist in the attraction of EU funds," added Cătălin Păuna.

Basic salaries in the public sector would grow by 15 percent next year, according to the salary law, but their level remains below the one from June 2010, when the salaries were reduced by 25 percent by the Government.

Under the headline "Romania, the emigration country", the Curierul Naţional remembers from yesterday"s statements that from Romania have emigrated almost 2.7 million citizens, representing the 13.1 percent of the total population and that, on short term, is difficult to anticipate an increase in the number of immigrants because the opportunities from abroad have also disappeared.

On long term, in 10-15 years, emigration is expected to substantially decrease, to the extent that Romania will converge to Europe.

Regarding the emigration of doctors and in general of the skilled labor force, the World Bank economist estimated that it is "unrealistic" to believe that wages in this sector will converge very rapidly at the same levels as in the Western Europe.

Qualified personnel is formed quite difficult, the process takes time and is expensive, revealed Păuna estimating that the emigration of the skilled personnel is "a very strong warning sign."

The Economistul newspaper publishes an interview with Professor Marin Dinu, the dean of the Faculty of Economics from ASE.

"The culture of the argued dialogue together with the consensual behavior fueled by the culture of compromise are explicitly the large deficits in the construction of the cultural foundations of the political elite in Romania.

What today represents a major risk is that political elites have an economic culture poorly structured, as in the knowledge gaps the populism is suggested to be solvent," we read in the Economistul.

Ziarul Financiar comments upon "the backstage preparation of the largest listing on the Stock Exchange" in an article entitled "Brokers are proposing to introduce the Fund the Property with 120 investment funds."

Unofficially, the listing date is January 25th, 2011. "For the first time since the establishment of the Fund, a listing date is being discussed (…). The state shareholding and the compensation of the former owners depend on the price of the stock market," the newspaper writes.

The same newspaper dedicates an article on the bank"s aggressive promotion of the credit cards that allow customers to buy certain products in installments with zero interest.

"With weaker sales of the traditional laws, will the credit card become the new alternative to the credit with the ID card, since it"s about small amounts, the customers will easily obtain such a product?

The economists do not see a bright future for this perspective, rather believing that it might be a risky bet with the future.(…) The consumer loans granted in the past based on a simplified documentation have determined the banks to form provisions of hundreds of millions of euros to cover losses of the bad loans," the Ziarul Financiar writes.

Translated by Iulia Florescu
MA Student, MTTLC, Bucharest University