Economy of Romania

Romania's appeals court on Tuesday jailed a senator, Sorin Rosca Stanescu, for two years and four months for his involvement in a case seen as a test of Romania's ability to conduct high-level corruption trials.

Stanescu was found guilty of using privileged information and manipulating the stock exchange by underselling shares in the oil company Rompetrol and then buying them back.

For the seventh consecutive year, Romanian oil and gas company OMV Petrom, majority owned by Austria's OMV, is the biggest company in south-east Europe, according to the ranking for 2013 published by SeeNews agency.

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Gas supplies from the Russian Federation to Romania were cut by 5 percent this Friday from the planned amount, with the Russian side offering no motivation, Minister-delegate for Energy Razvan Nicolescu told AGERPRES.

Prime Minister Victor Ponta admitted on Friday that Romania is being affected by the sanctions against Russia, but he added Romania must meet its commitments and assume the responsibility to show that nobody may change the international law.

President Traian Basescu said on Wednesday that OMV Austria will be the partner of Romania as long as the Romanian national interest is served as a priority.

The European Commission has asked Romania to provide details on the privatization of Oltchim chemicals factory, following suspicions of the state not behaving like a private investor, and taking over Petrom's Arpechim refinery might create advantages to this oil company, Competition Council chair Bogdan Chiritoiu told AGERPRES.

"Fiat biggest exporter with nearly EUR 1 billion"

BELGRADE -- Serbia’s biggest exporter in the first seven months of this year was Kragujevac-based company Fiat Automobili Srbija (Fiat Automobiles Serbia, FAS).

They exported cars worth EUR 921.6 million, according to the Serbian Ministry of Finance.

Patriciu, one of the richest people in Romania and a prominent member of the center-right National Liberal Party, PNL, died of liver cancer in London on Tuesday. He was 64.

Although Romania's economy recorded two straight quarters of decline, it stays on a positive trend with a seasonally adjusted economic growth of 2.6 percent in the first half of 2014 compared to the similar period of 2013, Economy Minister Constantin Nita said in a press release to AGERPRES on Monday.

President Traian Basescu on Thursday said that according to the standards of the European Union, Romania has entered recession, adding that economy in Romania is booming only in the imagination of Prime Minister Victor Ponta.