Banca Transilvania plans to spur lending by as much as 20% this year, after having boosted lending volumes by 10% last year, and has the biggest demand pick-up expectations from the corporate segment, states Robert Rekkers, general manager of the lending institution. read more...

Ecolor furniture producer, owner of a plant in Jucu, Cluj County close to Nokia manufacturing centre, wants to hire around 160 people this year, to reach a 400 headcount. read more...

Sources close to negotiations declared for HotNews.ro that the IMF did not talk about an increase in natural gas prices for the population but on the contrary, came up with a solution to decrease prices by 15%. read more...

Mişu Negriţoiu, who in summer will have run ING Bank Romania for five years, says he does not have a management contract for a definite period of time of three or five years, as is the rule on the market, and that he will stay in this position as long as the Dutch are satisfied with the generated results. read more...

Four of the six investors decided to withdraw from the two new 4bn-euro reactors of Cernavodă, Romania's biggest investment project of the past 20 years. read more...

Each Romanian employee in a multinational generated an annual gross profit of 5,898 euros in 2009 to foreign investors, surprisingly nearly 8% higher than that generated by a Western European employee, shows a survey conducted by audit and consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Romania. read more...

Over half a million unemployed were removed from unemployment statistics in 2010 because they did not renew their job applications with the employment agencies, so they are no longer recorded in the official statistics. read more...

The complete destabilisation of the Arab world by the imminent fall of the Mubarak regime in Egypt will reset the strategies of world leaders. We could witness policies of stockpiling and rationing fuels and basic products, believes professor Daniel Dăianu. read more...

The Romanian Senate’s committees for human rights and equal opportunities endorsed Wednesday a bill initiated by democrat liberal lawmaker Silviu Prigoana proposing to replace the term “Roma” with “gypsy”. read more...

The sale price of apartments in Romania’s seven largest cities increased by up to 2.5% on the month in January, as owners’ optimism was fueled by the rising interest of potential buyers, according to a survey of property website imobiliare.ro. read more...

Romania posted the seventh growth in installed wind power capacity among the European Union member states in 2010, namely a 448-megawatt increase to a total of 462 MW, according to a report of the European wind energy association EWEA. read more...

The next agreement with the IMF will focus on reforms that would accelerate Romania’s growth potential: special attention will be given to the flexibility of the labour market, EU funds absorption and orienting money towards investments, sources close to negotiations declared for HotNews.ro. read more...

Romanians younger than 35 will be eligible for up to EUR10,000 as non-refundable financing to start their own micro-company, as long as they hire at least two employees and reinvest 50% of their profit every year, as per an emergency ordinance approved by the Government on Wednesday. read more...

Romanian government does not have the competence to set up prices for natural gas, given that the energy regulatory authority ANRE is an independent institution, but it can only interfere in abuse cases by indirect check-ups, Prime Minister Emil Boc said Wednesday. read more...

Banca Transilvania (Transilvania Bank - TLV), the biggest Romanian-controlled lender, finalised a primary offering at the end of January, targeted at employees and a limited number of private investors, whereby it raised 8.05 million lei (1.89 million euros). read more...

Drug sales in Romania last year rose by 18.7% in lei (19.6% in euros), to 9.6bn lei (2.28bn euros), with the best performance being registered in the first six months of the year, according to the data provided by Cegedim Romania market research firm. read more...

A Romanian will spend almost 167 euros per month on average for food, beverages, cigarettes, clothes, footwear and personal care products in 2015, over 50 euros more than in 2010, according to ZF's calculations based on data provided by Euromonitor market research company. read more...

The area of the new office buildings due to be finalised in Bucharest this year will halve against 2010, to 135,000 square metres, but real estate developers have not found tenants for these projects, either, for the time being. Thus, 80% of space will stay vacant, taking into account contracts inked so far. read more...

The sheer frequency of legislative modifications in Romania, which exasperates both citizens and the business world, does not only stem from the need to change legislation after the revolution of 1989, but also from the ease with which the governments that succeeded each other during the last 20 years adopted emergency ordinances. read more...

The telecom market will remain difficult in 2011 as well, with clients continuing to ration their spending, and tight competition among operators. However, interest for PC tablets is high, as that for smartphones. read more...