People who took out Swiss franc-denominated loans in recent years, lured by the smaller nominal interest rates displayed by banks, are now seeing themselves having to pay increasingly higher instalments as the exchange rate is hitting all-time highs. The franc is now 28% stronger against the RON than in late 2008 and 57% higher than in December 2007. read more...

Businessman Augustin Oancea, who controls an energy business with a turnover of nearly 100 million euros in 2009, has invested some of his money to acquire Louis Blanc Offices building in Bucharest's Piaţa Victoriei (Victory Square) in an around 6 million-euro deal, real estate sources told ZF. read more...

Swedish giant H&M (Hennes & Mauritz), one of the world's biggest clothing retailers, will hire 300 staff by the end of the year, to add to the existing 100-employee team, who largely fill middle-management positions. read more...

Philippe Lejeune, the Frenchman who has been at the helm of Cora in Romania for ten years, intends to cover all Romanian counties within seven or eight years, which amounts to a radical change of strategy, given that in its over ten years of presence on the Romanian market the retailer has opened only five stores, three in Bucharest, and one in Cluj-Napoca and Baia Mare. read more...

Chocolate producer Kandia, one of the best-known Romanian brands, has a new general manager - Mihuţ Crăciun, Red Bull's first head of local operations. read more...

The unemployment rate fell for the ninth consecutive month in December last year, to 6.87%, corresponding to nearly 630,000 unemployed. read more...

Romania's overall debt will reach a peak of around 82% of GDP this year, a major increase against the 51% recorded at the end of 2008, but resumption of economic growth will allow for the debt to return to manageable levels in the medium run, according to the latest IMF report on Romania's economic situation. read more...

Romtelecom, one of the leading communications operators in Romania, is preparing to launch one of the toughest restructuring programmes in recent history, which could leave the operator short of up to 1,400 employees against the end of 2010 considering that the company intends to continue to boost its number of clients. read more...

Fondul Proprietatea (Property Fund - FP) rush has taken over Romania this winter and the tens of millions of euros expected to enter Romania after its floatation on the Bucharest Stock Exchange are making many shareholders already dream of becoming millionaires. read more...

Romania's current account deficit widened 23.5% to EUR5.17 billion in January-November 2010, from a gap of EUR4.19 billion in the year-earlier period, due to the lower current transfers surplus and an increasing deficit of the incomes balance, central bank data showed Thursday. read more...

The World Bank included Romania, alongside other five countries, in the category of developing economies in Europe and Central Asia undergoing the most serious restructuring, according to the bank's Global Economic Prospects 2011 report released Thursday. read more...

The Romanian Reserve and Retired Military Staff Union on Thursday will file criminal complaints against Prime Minister Emil Boc, Defense Minister Gabriel Oprea, Interior Minister Traian Igas and Romanian Intelligence Service director George Maior for discarding court rulings on military pensions. read more...

The number of medical leaves granted last year in Romania decreased 45% compared to 2009 following the introduction of a stricter system, the Health Ministry said in a press release Thursday. read more...

Starting this year, Romania will join the European Semester, which means that the 2012 budget will be first presented to the EU Finance ministers before it will be sent to the Parliament for approval. read more...

Foreign Direct Investments ncreased in the first 11 months of 2010 to 2.26 billion euro, a 25.5% drop compared to the similar period in 2009 of 3.04 billion euro, Romania’s National Central Bank data reads. read more...

The European Commission's Directorate-General for Taxation and the Customs Union supports Romania's request to apply reverse taxation on cereal and will forward the paperwork to the Council of the European Union for approval, said Sorin Blejnar, head of Romania's tax authority ANAF. read more...

Romania’s state-owned railway company CFR SA will modernize ten train stations in the country for an estimated 332.8 million lei (EUR1=RON4.2564) net of VAT, the company said Thursday. read more...

Romanian fiscal authorities Wednesday started a series of unannounced inspections targeting the pricing algorithms, taxable profits and accounting methods of oil companies, according to Sorin Blejnar, the president of tax authority ANAF. read more...

Romanian officials and Chinese governmental officials agreed on Wednesday, at Beijing, the organization of a bilateral economic forum in 2011 at Bucharest in the IT&C sector, Communications minister announced on Thursday. read more...

Romanian TV star Serban Huidu is feeling well and started recovery exercises at the Innsbruck hospital, but for now, doctors cannot say when he will be able to return to Romania, Romanian news agency Mediafax reads quoting representatives of Prima TV news television. read more...