Economy ministry announced that it will start, this month, procedures to privatize management to a quarter of state owned companies, a press release of the ministry informs. read more...

France reaffirms its conviction that Romania needs to join Schengen and French authorities are willing to help Romania comply with all technical requirements, French Interior minister Claude Gueant declared, quoted by Romanian news agency Mediafax. read more...

The national authority for the protection of consumers issued 101 fines totaling 434.750 lei after a control of real estate agencies. According to data presented, 290 real estate operators were controlled. 12 of the real estate agencies were temporarily shut down until they manage to correct deficiencies and the authority also issued 244 warnings. read more...

A judicial counselor of the Bucharest City Hall and a referee were sentenced to four years of prison and five years of prison by the Bucharest Court, Romania’s news agency Mediafax reports. Bucharest Court sentenced Gabi Paraschiv, referee at the City Hall to traffic of influence. read more...

There are still expensive and the autonomy is reduced but they are easily making their way to the roads. Electric cars are closer to mass commercialization and Renault introduced electric cars in Bucharest for testing. read more...

BCR, the biggest bank on the market, is currently in talks to settle lawsuits with individual clients on lending contracts now on the docket, proposing the modification of the interest clause by applying some smaller margins, for instance of 5.5% over six-month Euribor, depending on several criteria. read more...

Foreign currency loans will not become more expensive on short term on the rising Euribor indicator as the falling country risk allows banks to borrow more cheaply from abroad. read more...

Consumer goods, from bread and milk to personal care items, have been the least hurt during recent years, while alcoholic beverages have been the first to go from shopping baskets lately, with almost have of buyers stating in a survey carried out by Nielsen market research company that they gave up these products because of the crisis. read more...

BCR Asigurări, ranking fifth on the general insurance market, ended last year with profit worth 14.4m lei (3.4m euros), after having cumulated losses of over 61m lei for two consecutive years. read more...

Banks need to know on what foundation to plan their future activity, so it is necessary to draw up legislation to clarify if the state levies tax or not on the banks' earnings from the release of provisions after they switch to international financial reporting standards (IFRS), from 2012 onwards, believes Şerban Toader, senior partner of KPMG Romania. read more...

The prices of new Bucharest apartments have dropped, almost three years since the onset of the real estate crisis, by just 15-17% in a series of housing complexes, a "discount" that for potential buyers is practically cancelled out by the 13% leu depreciation. read more...

Shares of Intercontinental Bucureşti (RCHI) hotel company have skyrocketed on the Bourse over the past month amid rising transactions. The company has budgeted profit for this year, after nine consecutive years of losses. read more...

President Băsescu publicly launched the topic of changing the prime minister two months ago, but in the meantime his position has changed. However, markets have taken in this uncertainty and hesitate to lend long-term until the situation is clarified. read more...