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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Romania’s public television finished 2010 with a 162 million lei deficit about 38.47 million euro according to last year’s activity report. A year before, the institution registered a deficit of 48 million lei. The net business numbers of the public television in 2010 was 531.87 million lei, total revenues amounting to 571 million lei. read more...

Bucharest Mayor Sorin Oprescu declared that the famous U2 band will not perform this year in September, Romanian news agency Mediafax reads. The Irish band will not be able to transport the famous The Claw stage in time. read more...

British Ambassador to Bucharest, Martin Harris talks in an interview about Romania and the challenges faced by British investors, what are their expectations. In his opinion, Romania’s work force is well qualified, which is an important advantage for Romania. read more...

Romania and Bulgaria are not ready to join Schengen, German and French Foreign Affairs Ministers consider, quoted by Novinite. France supports the adhesion of the two countries but so far they did not manage to meet the requirements, Alain Juppe, French Foreign Affairs minister declared after a meeting with his German counterpart, Guido Westerwelle. read more...

EU’s Court of Justice ruled on Thursday that the European Commission’s actions against Romania, for not complying with obligations related to the conservation of wild birds, are inadmissible, Romania’s European Affairs Department chief Bogdan Manoiu declared for news agency Mediafax. read more...

"Citizens consider that corruption increased, the perception on corruption after joining EU did not register a notable improvement, legislative progress were most of the times made at foreign pressure, anti graft prosecutors and the national integrity agency were saved by internal and external pressures, and internal integrity is not a priority at all", some of the conclusions of an audit on anti-corruption strategies in 2005-2010, set up by two independent experts at the recommendation of the latest EC report in July 2010 reads. read more...

Loan demand from individuals registered a spectacular rebound in March, with the number of loan reports issued by the Credit Bureau at banks' requests for information on potential clients almost doubling from previous months, to 569,000 queries. read more...

President Traian Basescu announced on Tuesday, at Tallinn that he will launch a discussion within the National Central Bank, the government and analysts to see whether Romania should maintain its objective to join euro in 2015, Agerpres reports. read more...

A team of Romanian researchers detected in Slanic Prahova traces of radioactive iodine in the rain water and sheep milk from the area. Romania’s Nuclear Physics Institute director Horia Hulubei declared for HotNews.ro that the values are so small that they have no impact on the population or the environment. read more...

Romania and Bulgaria proved that they are as ready as they can be to implement all Schengen acquis in a satisfying manner, the report set up by MEP Carlos Coelho on Schengen extension reads. The report will be presented on Tuesday morning in the EP Commission for Civil Liberties (LIBE), Romanian news agency Agerpres reads. read more...

Russian President Dmitri Medvedev will decorate on Tuesday, the astronauts that contributed to the space exploration including Romanian Dumitru Prunariu, Romanian news agency Agerpres reports quoting the Kremlin’s press service. read more...

Romania’s economic relaunch will continue to speed up on bumpy roads with an industry production sustained by export demands while internal consumption will remain weak due to restrictive fiscal policies, a Capital Economics analysis reads quoted by Romanian news agency Mediafax. read more...