The committee for defense in the Romanian Chamber of Deputies on Tuesday adopted an amendment to the ordinance extending the period in which military pensions will be recalculated, which says that if a pension is lower after recalculation, the pension shall retain its original value. read more...

The committee for budget and finances in the Romanian Chamber of Deputies on Tuesday rejected a bill reducing VAT on basic foods to 5%, as well as another making pensions lower than 2,000 lei (EUR1=RON4.1147) tax-exempt. read more...

Lowering the general social security contributions would help stimulate business competition in Romania, a central bank official said Tuesday, adding that the measure shouldn’t take too much of a toll on the government budget. read more...

Romania’s net average salary in February was at 1,414 lei (EUR1=RON4.1333), down 0.7% compared with the previous month, Romania’s statistics institute said Tuesday. read more...

Cutting social security contributions paid by the employer and the employee by 3% (from an overall 44% to 41% of contributions for every gross salary) could lead to the creation of 100,000 new jobs, while contributions to the state budget would decline by around 380 million euros, according to specialists. read more...

"First Home" mortgage loans, refinancing of consumer loans and credit cards are strategic priorities for Bancpost's retail segment this year, says Kyriakos Xydis, executive vice-president in charge of this business segment. read more...

The executives of BCR, the biggest bank on the market, last year took home total salaries worth 15.13m lei (3.53m euros), up over 50% from 2009. read more...

NBR's foreign currency reserve added almost 700m euros in March after the 1.4bn-euro tranche from the loan the state contracted from the European Commission was disbursed, thus climbing to 32.76bn euros, close to the all-time peak reached last November. read more...

The average interest rate for individuals' deposits shed half a percentage point in the first two months of 2011 and reached 7,1% per annum in late February. read more...

Romania’s Prime Minister Emil Boc said Friday the new “First Home” program will start after Easter and its application norms will be approved in the next two weeks. read more...

Surprise decision of the National Bank of Romania to cut the minimum foreign reserve requirements ratio on foreign currency-denominated liabilities from 25% to 20%, thereby releasing over one billion euros to banks, is interpreted by bank analysts as a signal encouraging lending and indirectly the economy. read more...

BRD and Bancpost, two top ten banks, have already announced their interest to participate in the fourth edition of the "First Home" scheme, under which the Government only guarantees 50% of the loans sold. The decision, announced just one day after the approval of the scheme, shows there is still interest, although several bankers had said recently that the Government's proposals were difficult to apply. read more...

The government discussed a draft of a normative act introducing unique salaries in the educational system so that those who won in court a 50% increase will not be able to benefit of the money, PM Boc declared after a meeting. read more...

Mobile teams of the National Customs Authority discovered over 3000 boxes containing 30,000,000 Jin Ling cigarettes produced in the warehouse of Galaxy Tobacco SA Company in Sfantu Gheorghe, Central Romania, a press release of the institution informs. read more...

Volksbank Romania requested, in court, damages from the government and the national authority for the protection of consumers worth 1 million euro for the damages the bank incurred by the emergency ordinance 50/2010 regarding credits of the population, official sources quoted by Romanian news agency Mediafax said. Volksbank Romania representatives confirmed the information but did not wish to offer any details. read more...

In an interview to ZF prior to announcing that procurement worth billions of euros could be cancelled, Cristina Trăilă said "I can't" five times in the first 10 minutes. read more...

The state's investment spending fell by over 17% in the first two months of the year compared with the similar period of 2010, amounting to just 1.3 billion lei, while overall budget revenues climbed 8.3% to 27.5 billion lei. read more...

The new two-year precautionary arrangement with Romania, which starts on March 31st, has received the green light from Washington on Friday, and is set to focus on stimulating the economy by means of structural reforms and by improving infrastructure. read more...

Bankers are experiencing the biggest troubles in Galaţi and Ialomiţa counties, where the share of overdue payments exceeded 14%, almost double the market average. read more...

The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund on Friday approved the final review of a EUR13 billion stand-by arrangement with Romania, and the terms of a new, precautionary deal that will start on March 31, an IMF official told Mediafax. read more...