Austrian banking group Erste said that Romania’s inflation is expected to reach 4.3% by the end of 2023, in line with its previous forecast. Romania's consumer prices rose by 7.4% in January, accelerating from a 6.61% increase in December and marginally surpassing Erste's estimate of 7.34%, the banking group said in an updated research report on Wednesday. The forecast error regarding the inflation rate in January was due to costlier water and sewerage services. However, core inflation declined by 0.2 percentage points (pp) to 8.2% year-on-yearin January, in line with Erste's forecast. The share of food products in the January consumer basket rose by nearly 0.7 pp, while non-food items and services saw their shares diminish by approximately 0.5 and 0.1 percentage points, respectively. Fuel and non-oil energy items represented 18.2% of the consumer basket, up from 16.3% previously. On Wednesday, Romania's central bank decided to keep its monetary policy rate unchanged at 7%, as anticipated by Erste in January. Erste said they stick to its call for the first rate cut in May, and expect the key rate to ease to 5.75% by the end of the year.
Participation in cultural education activities continues to be limited, with the main barriers being difficult access, insufficient knowledge, and cost, the recently released Cultural Consumption Barometer 2024 shows. The report showed that many Romanians still associate culture with entertainment rather than with personal development or furthering their knowledge. The need for relaxation dominates in cultural […]
Roughly 84% of Romanians say that the pace of the state’s digitalization is slow or very slow, according to an Edge Institute & AtlasIntel study presented at the Digital Governance Summit 2025, which took place on Tuesday, November 25, at the presidential palace in Bucharest. The survey aims to capture the way citizens relate to […]
Romania’s Superior Council of Magistracy (CSM) issued a negative opinion on the new bill regarding magistrates’ pensions. The move is only the latest development concerning a heated issue that led to tensions between the executive and the judiciary branch. CSM’s opinion is consultative, and the government led by Ilie Bolojan can still take responsibility for […]
Romania took the presidency of the Central European Initiative (or CEI) on Wednesday, November 26, according to a press release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE). The organization is a regional intergovernmental forum established in 1989, following the fall of the Berlin Wall. It gathers 17 Member States in Central, Eastern, and South-Eastern Europe […]
Trade between Romania and Poland continues to grow, with annual bilateral exchanges in goods now valued at more than EUR 12 billion, according to figures presented by the Polish-Romanian Bilateral Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PRBCC). The data was released during a reception in Bucharest marking Poland’s Independence Day and Romania’s National Day. Polish investments […]
As Romania moves closer to implementing the EU Pay Transparency Directive, local employers are preparing for one of the most consequential shifts in workplace regulation in over a decade. The directive, set for transposition by June 2026, introduces strict new rules on salary disclosure, pay reporting, and equal-pay verification, aiming to close persistent gender gaps […]
