Romania is about to endorse one of the most generous schemes intended to support investment in green energy, with a report of the World Bank specifying the current legislation in the field is over 50% more generous than the European regulations. read more...

Around 7,000 Romanians went on a cruise holiday last year, while worldwide 17.5 million people worldwide choose to spend their holidays on cruising ships every year. read more...

SIF Oltenia (SIF5), Banca Transilvania (TLV) and Zentiva Bucureşti (SCD) are currently among the most "expensive" shares on the Bucharest Stock Exchange in terms of minimum amounts investors have to spend to buy a stake. read more...

When two thirds of retail lending is foreign currency-denominated, talks about curbing foreign currency loans appear to come late. In recent years, this major vulnerability of the domestic market has been hidden under speeches about the upcoming euro adoption. read more...

For a 50-sqm sweet shop in a town, Easter and Christmas bring half of annual profit. For large shopping centres, Easter and Christmas mean 20-30% added to total turnover. This is the period when business owners spend their entire time in stores and restaurants and people do not think twice before taking money out of their pockets. read more...

2011 is set to be the year of a new wave of projects for the experienced office market developers though the vacancy rate in Bucharest is still around 15%. read more...

Government gives up plans to join the euro zone in January 2015, a deadline announced regularly in previous years and advanced just the plan to join ERM II, the European mechanism of exchange rates in the 2013 – 2014 interval, a document obtained by news agency Mediafax which the Executive plans to send to the European Commission reads. read more...

Bucharest Court postponed the term of the file in which media mogul Sorin Ovidiu Vantu is indicted for favoring Nicolae Popa for May 20. Magistrates motivated their decision on grounds that the file is not in court and that Alexandru Stoian, Vantu’s driver, invoked lack of defense. Vantu was not present at today’s term, he was represented just by his lawyers. His defense attorney, Marian Nazat requested the court to quote Nicolae Popa for hearings. read more...

Former union leader Marius Petcu was indicted by anti-graft prosecutors for bribe taking, Romanian news agency Agerpres reports. Petcu was in temporary arrest. The Bucharest Appellate Court rejected on April 12 the request to temporary release Petcu, temporary arrested on March 31 for 29 days through a decision of the Higher Court of Justice. read more...

An IMF mission will arrive in Romania in Bucharest at the end of the month for the first evaluation mission of the new standby agreement, precautionary signed with Romania, IMF representatives said. read more...

President Traian Basescu signed on Thursday the degree acknowledging the resignation of Ioan Botis from the Labour Ministry, the Presidency reads in a press release. Moreover, Basescu signed the decree appointing PM Boc as interim minister of the Labour ministry, the press release reads. read more...

Romania’s National Central Bank governor Mugur Isarescu declared on Wednesday that when the central bank defends the national currency, the operations cannot called aggressive nor barbarian referring to the speculative attack against the national currency in 2008. read more...

Labour minister Ioan Botis resigned on Wednesday morning after a new talk with PM Boc in which the latter suggested he should resign following the scandal related to his wife’s employment in an association that received EU funds, Romanian news agency Mediafax reads. read more...

Romania will register in 2012 the biggest economic growth within the newly EU member states with the GDP increasing by 4.4% a report of the World Bank reads. In the same time, Romania is the only country whose GDP dropped in 2010 and this year it will register the slowest growth rhythm compared to the newly EU member states. read more...

Generali Asigurari paid last month a damage worth over 55.2 million lei for damages produced at the commercial complex Dragonul Rosu, the insurer announced. Even though this is the biggest damage paid off in Romania, this did not affect the financial stability of the company, Generali Asigurari General Director Marie Kovarova declared. In the same time, Generali Asigurari director said that the company is a powerful one and very stable financially. 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...

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...

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...

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...

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...