Odile Renaud-Basso, President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), pays a two-day visit to Romania this week to hold talks with government and business leaders and to address the Summit of the Three Seas Initiative 2023 taking place in Bucharest on Wednesday, reads a press release of the financial institution.President Renaud-Basso will also welcome the new EBRD Director for Romania, Victoria Zinchuk. Victoria Zinchuk follows Mark Davis, who has held the role of Regional Director, Romania and Bulgaria, since 2019, and moves to Zagreb to take up the role of Regional Director, Central Europe.In 2022, green economy investments made up more than 61 per cent of the year's total EBRD investment in Romania, which at EUR 709 million was the second highest level ever in the country.This is Renaud-Basso's first visit to Romania as EBRD President. The visit takes place a few months after Marcel Ciolacu, leader of the Social Democratic Party, became Prime Minister of the country's coalition government in June.Since then, Romania has announced a major advance in renewable energy provision, preparing for the launch of its first auction for a contract-for-difference (CfD) support scheme for renewable energy, supported by the EBRD. Onshore wind and solar projects with a total capacity of 2000 MW will be supported through a CfD scheme for 15 years, with successful bidders expected to be announced in November.As well as bilateral meetings with President Klaus Johannis and Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu, President Renaud-Basso is meeting officials including Marcel-Ioan Bolos, Minister of Finance; Sebastian Burduja, Minister of Energy; Sorin Grindeanu, Minister of Transport and Infrastructure and Mugur Isarescu, Governor of the National Bank of Romania. She will also hold talks with investors and the business community as well as civil society.On Wednesday, Renaud-Basso will also address the 2023 Summit of the Three Seas Initiative, a forum of 12 states in the European Union that lie between the Baltic, Adriatic and Black Seas in central and eastern Europe and meet to discuss increasing integration.Romania is a key partner of the EBRD and one of its top six investment destinations. To date, the EBRD has done EUR 10.5 billion of business through 515 projects in Romania, focusing on financing infrastructure, especially in the regions, boosting private sector productivity and further developing the financial sector and capital markets. The private sector share of the portfolio is 80 per cent. (Photo:https://www.ebrd.com/)
The Praid Salt Mine, in central Romania, is still closed to tourists due to the flooding that took place following last week’s rains. Salt extraction activities are also halted due to the risk of collapse, while efforts are underway to remove the water accumulations. The management announced last week that the salt mine is temporarily […]
Romania’s Competition Council has approved the acquisition of Karamolegos Bakery Romania by Vel Pitar, a company fully owned by global bakery group Bimbo, the authority announced on May 12. Karamolegos Bakery Romania is involved in the production and sale of packaged bread under brands such as KB Toast, KB Selected, and Mândra. It also supplies […]
The National Bank of Romania (BNR) probably spent/sold EUR 6 billion of its foreign exchange reserves to prop up the local currency (leu) last week after the victory of far-right presidential candidate George Simion in the first round of elections, which led to the collapse of the government, according to an analysis by Austrian bank […]
Romania’s foreign trade deficit (goods) widened by 27% y/y to EUR 8.45 billion in Q1, according to data published by the statistics office INS. Exports rose by 2.7% y/y while imports surged by 8.1% y/y. Romania’s deficit in foreign trade in goods has reached EUR 35.2 billion in the four quarters to March 2025, or […]
Romania’s Treasury has launched new issues of government bonds under the Tezaur and Fidelis schemes, paying yields of 6.75% (1-year) to 7.8% (5-year) for the local currency debt and up to 6.25% (7-year) for euros. After the Treasury raised RON 21.4 billion (EUR 4 billion) under the two schemes year to date, the households’ demand […]
Romania’s Treasury on May 12 placed RON 540 million (EUR 100 million) of Government bonds on the domestic market at an average yield of 8.45% by reopening an issue that matures at the end of July 2026, according to the National Bank (BNR). The yield is 1.5 percentage points up from roughly two weeks earlier, […]
