Romania’s commercial deficit decreased in January 2011 by 60% to 186.2 million euro from 472.9 million euro in the same month in 2010, Romania’s National Statistics Institute reports. The decrease of the commercial deficit was mainly caused by an increase of exports to the imports. read more...

Romania’s trade deficit narrowed to EUR186.2 million in January, from nearly EUR473 million in the year-earlier month, the country’s statistics institute INS said Monday. read more...

The 127 million Japanese have been living a nightmare for the last three days: earthquake, tsunami and nuclear alert. read more...

Only two of the nine private companies that received state aid last year, which amounting to an overall 191 million euros, have Romanian shareholders, according to data sent to ZF by the Finance Ministry. read more...

The Romanian government will come with a set of tax incentives to reduce taxation of labour until mid this year, because Romanian employers need to make a profit in order to create new jobs, said Labour Minister Ioan Nelu Botiş, 43, at a meeting in Bistriţa with businesspeople in the county. read more...

UniCredit Ţiriac Bank, the seventh bank in terms of assets in 2010, ended last year with net income worth almost 57.2m lei in line with Romanian accounting standards (RAS), down 75% from the 2009 income. read more...

The leu will continue to strengthen throughout 2011 to an exchange rate of 4 lei per euro in December, believe analysts of American giant JP Morgan, who come with the most optimistic exchange rate forecast for this year. read more...

Road carriers are expecting their profits to decline this year because of the increase in fuel prices, with some companies expected to go bankrupt after their earnings were affected by the VAT increase and the leu depreciation last year, as well. read more...

SIF shares are currently a better option for dividends than FP or BRD shares. BRD-Groupe Societe Generale, the second largest bank domestically, proposes shareholders a gross dividend of almost 0.18 lei/share, the smallest of the past five years, so that for a BRD share bought on Friday for 14.1 lei, an investor would get a gross return of below 1.3%. read more...

Banks' individual clients had overdue loan payments totally worth 5.7bn lei (1.3bn euros) in late January, with the sum being almost 73% higher than in the corresponding period of 2009, according to NBR data. read more...

Wine industry players are betting on a consumption pick-up this year as signals after the first two months are positive, with sales registering a slight rebound. read more...

Romanian organized crime prosecutors on Sunday detained eleven people accused of drug trafficking, following raids on several homes in capital Bucharest. read more...

The Romanian Government will put forward a plan to help Roma ethnics start a business or obtain authorization to carry out independent activities, according to an official document. read more...

Romanian democrat liberal deputy Petru Calian put forward a proposition to levy excise taxes on soft drinks containing sweetening agents. read more...

Romanian President Traian Basescu will attend a meeting of ruling Democratic Liberal Party leaders scheduled for Sunday afternoon, president’s spokesman Valeriu Turcan told Mediafax. read more...

Another reactor of the Fukushima 1 nuclear plant has problems with the cooling system, a Japanese official declared on Saturday night, quoted by Kyodo news agency and Reuters. read more...

Japanese PM announced on Saturday in a speech aired by CNN that no person was affected by radiations from the Fukushima nuclear plant. read more...

Romanian Labor Minister Ioan Botis said Saturday that the five draft laws that make up the Social Dialog Code have been completed and will be sent to the Parliament if the Government does not seek lawmakers' confidence vote to pass them into legislation. read more...

Romania’s Foreign Affairs Ministry said Saturday the country’s Embassy in Tokyo has received no information about Romanians being injured or left dead in the earthquakes that hit Japan over the past two days. read more...

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the European Investment Bank and the International Finance Corporation made available EUR1.76 billion to support Romanian banks in the 2009-2010 interval, within a joint action plan aimed to help financial systems in Central and Eastern Europe. read more...