Oana Tilica

Non-resident tourists arriving in Romania spent, on average, 2,573.3 lei/person (approximately 520 euros, at the National Bank of Romania exchange rate), in the first half of this year, and the main reason for travel to Romania (59.6%) was represented by business, including participation in congresses, conferences, courses, fairs, and exhibitions, according to data published by the National Ins

The pandemic boosted Romanian tourism, the volume of bookings this summer having increased by 46% compared to 2019 and by 60% compared to last year, according to a press release from Travelminit.ro, sent to AGERPRES on Tuesday.

Turnover in industry increased by 23.9% in January-August 2021, by 23.9% more than in the same period last year, according to a press release of the National Institute of Statistics sent to AGERPRES on Tuesday. This is mainly due to the growth recorded in the manufacturing industry (+ 24.2%) and the extractive industry (+ 13.9%).

Energy prices will stay high, so people should make their consumption more efficient, government should help the vulnerable, and companies should pay a solidarity contribution, Chairman of Romania's Competition Council Bogdan Chiritoiu told AGERPRES on Wednesday.

The national currency has depreciated on Thursday compared to the euro, continuing, practically, its descending trend started last week, the internal political situation having no influence on the exchange rate, believes Adrian Codirlasu, deputy chair of the CFA Romania Association. "The course depreciated a little. Practically it continued the depreciation trend started last week.

The foreign currency reserves of the National Bank of Romania clocked in, at the end of August 2021, at 41.616 billion euro, an increase by 6.68 pct over the level of 39.008 billion euro recorded on July 31, 2021, the central bank announced on Wednesday.

Seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in Romania advanced 0.1 percentage points from the previous month, to 5.1%, the National Institute of Statistics (INS) announced on Wednesday. According to INS, the male unemployment rate was 0.7 percentage points higher than the female unemployment rate.

The Ministry of Energy will come to Government with an emergency ordinance by which the repeat offences of energy distributors and suppliers will be punished at the level of the company's turnover, announced, on Tuesday, the Minister of Energy, Virgil Popescu, announced.

Air passenger transport in Romania decreased by 26.5% in H1 2021, y-o-y, from 4,077,800 passengers to 2,997,000 passengers, according to centralised data with the National Institute of Statistics (INS).

Romania's resident population was 19.186 million on January 1, 2021, down by 142,600 people from January 1, 2020, with the female population being in the majority, at 9.795 million, which is 51% of total, according to provisional data published by the National Institute of Statistics (INS).