Since early 2020, EU Member States have been taking restrictive measures to slow down the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. This didn’t stop in 2021, when different waves of COVID-19 outbreaks required the Member States to react, resulting in a considerable decrease in petroleum products consumption in the EU. Consumption of motor gasoline, kerosene-type jet fuel and gas and diesel oil used for transport of people, heating and products were severely affected, and none of the fuels has completely returned to pre-COVID levels. While in 2020, EU Member States showed a combined decrease in motor gasoline consumption of 11% (from 74 million tonnes to 66 million tonnes) compared to 2019 levels, this value stands at a 5% decrease in 2021 (from 74 million tonnes to 70.4 million tonnes in 2021). The biggest declines in consumption were registered in Ireland, Luxembourg and Spain (more than a 20% decrease in each). As every Member State's air transport was profoundly affected, consumption of kerosene-type jet fuel fell drastically in 2020 compared to 2019 (-56%) and did not recover considerably in 2021 (still -46%). In 2020 and 2021, the smallest reductions in consumption were registered in Luxembourg and Belgium, while Croatia, Romania and Cyprus saw the largest decreases. Among the Member States, the largest increases were in Slovenia (21.7%), Slovakia (16.5%) and Portugal (15.9%). In Romania, retail sales increased by 5.6% year-on-year, above the EU average. EU consumption of gas and diesel oil down 7% In terms of gas and diesel oil, in 2020, EU wide consumption fell by 7%, especially in Luxembourg, Italy, Spain and Slovenia. Only in Finland, Cyprus and Romania was consumption greater than in 2019. In 2021, EU consumption increased but was still below 2019 levels (-6%). In some cases, like Luxembourg, Germany, the Netherlands and Greece, consumption in 2021 compared to 2019 levels fell to even lower levels than in 2020, while in 10 Member States the use of gas and diesel oil increased above 2019 levels (Romania, Estonia, Croatia, Poland, Cyprus, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Czechia, Sweden and Latvia).
Rosavis Prod, a business founded in 2007 by the Vica and Constantin Mihăilă family in northeastern Romania at Roşieşti, Vaslui County, which raises 2 million chickens annually, is investing EUR 10.8 million in a feed factory, Ziarul Financiar reported. Out of this, EUR 6.5 million will come...
Telecommunications operator Digi Communications (stock symbol DIGI) has hired investment bank Rothschild to evaluate a possible listing on the Madrid stock exchange of its Spanish business, the publication Expansión wrote on September 12, citing anonymous market sources, according to Ziarul Financiar. ...
Romania’s current account (CA) deficit in rolling 12 months has narrowed for the second consecutive month to EUR 32.12 billion in July, according to the data published by the National Bank of Romania (BNR). The 12-month rolling CA gap has thus narrowed by EUR 0.5 billion from June, after it previously contracted by EUR 1.4 […]
Romania's minister of finance, Alexandru Nazare, has been on a working visit to Washington, DC, from September 11 to 13 to strengthen economic and financial dialogue with American partners and attract new investors in key sectors for Romania, such as energy, infrastructure, and technology, the Ministry of Finance announced. The agenda of the visit included […]
The minister of investments and European projects, Dragoș Pîslaru, announced on the evening of Friday, September 12, that Romania has officially submitted the renegotiated National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) to the European Commission, after which the formal approval by the Commission and then the decision of the ECOFIN Council will follow. Romania has currently […]
The main risk for Romania's macroeconomic balances rests in the budgetary area and are related to the commitment for full implementation of the first and second packages this year and in 2026 – but even under the best case scenario, the measures legislated so far would not bring the general government deficit lower than 6% […]
