NEWS OF THE DAY - JULY 1

Natural gas is 2.5 percent more expensive for households and 1.5 percent for industrial consumers starting from Tuesday, Romanian Energy Regulatory Authority (ANRE) President Niculae Havrilet announced. 'We have decided out of prudence to increase the weight of import gas [in the consumption pool] in July, considering the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, so the import will reach 10 percent of the consumption, especially for the purpose of storing this gas and increase the security of supply. This means a price increase of 1.5 percent for the industrial consumers paying regulated prices, and of 2.5 percent for the household consumers,' said Havrilet. The price of gas from domestic production remains unchanged, the ANRE official mentioned.

* Romania is among the first states officially sending to Brussels the new National Rural Development Programme (NRDP), Vice Prime Minister and Agriculture and Rural Development Minister Daniel Constantin told Agerpres on Tuesday. 'Romania is among the first states officially sending to the European Commission the final draft of the NRDP 2014-2020. We are going to receive the feedback from the Commission, although we have already received an informal one, saying that it is a good programme. I am glad that there is a nationwide agreement on the programme among the professional associations, the NGOs and the civil society. We met last week once more and we approved the programme. I hope we get the Commission's approval as soon as possible,' Constantin said. He pointed out that starting this autumn projects could be filed on almost all the measures in the programme, if approved by the EC.

* The net foreign capital inflows (the difference between inflows and withdrawals) on the Romanian capital market...