Oana Tilica

Romanian producers and traders in the agricultural sector have at their disposal, starting Wednesday, the Commoditrader digital platform, which allows them to trade and manage the transport of agricultural commodities digitally.

Banks in Romania foresee that lending conditions will be left unchanged over the next quarter - Q3 2019 - for both types of loans to households, mortgage and consumer loans. As for non-financial corporations, banks anticipate a moderate tightening of credit standards, regardless of the company size, according to a lending survey conducted by the National Bank of Romania (BNR).

Electricity prices on the spot stock market has reached a high of 655 lei per MWh on Monday, very close to the absolute record high, with imports of around 1,200 MW, according to an AGERPRES analysis of data with OPCOM and Transelectrica. Thus, the average price of electricity delivered on Monday is 505 lei per MWh, while the highest is 655 lei per MWh, with a peak-hour average of 622 lei.

The unemployment rate adjusted for seasonality has gone up to 3.9 pct in July 2019, an increase of 0.1 percentage points as compared to the previous month (3.8 pct), according to the data published on Friday by the National Institute for Statistics.

The Ministry of European Funds, through the Managing Authority for the Operational Program 'Human Capital' has launched for public consultation the guide "Pilot program for the stimulation of the participation in education of children whose parents work abroad".

The real budget revision will be probably carried out in November, considering the evolution of certain spending categories, the National Trade Union Bloc (BNS) said in a statement; the union organization cautions that shifting the budgetary pressure to the last two months of the year means an unjustified postponement that is dangerous for budgetary stability.

The budget rectification does not entail funding cuts from ministries such as Transport, Health or Education, and the ministers are under the obligation to spend the allocated money, Minister of Public Finance Eugen Teodorovici told a Tuesday's press conference. As concerns the Ministry of Education he explained from where the reduction in funds that appears in the budget rectification comes.

In its latest budget revision bill, the Ministry of Public Finance (MFP) projects an increase by 2.251 billion lei in the 2019 government revenues and by 285.7 million lei in the public expenses.

The Ministry of Public Finance (MFP) has put forth a positive budget revision that secures compliance with the 2.76pct deficit, with the largest cuts according to the bill to be conducted in the appropriations for the Ministry of National Education, the Ministry of European Funds and the Ministry of Research.

Romania's Q1 2019 government deficit is 0.5 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), while the percentage reported on Friday by Eurostat of 4.5pct of GDP quarterly is calculated against the seasonally adjusted ESA balance by reference to the quarterly GDP, according to the Romanian Ministry of Public Finance (MFP).