International Monetary Fund

Christine Lagarde resigned as director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The decision will enter into force on September 12. This is said in a statement by Lagard, distributed by the financial institution.

Decreasing workforce and low productivity of aging employees, coupled with rising pressures on public finances, can cost the economies of Central and Eastern Europe about 1% of GDP per year. By the middle of the century, per capita income will rise from the current 52% to around 60% of those in Western Europe.

As the International Monetary Fund prepares to choose a new managing director to replace Christine Lagarde, who is to leave the post in the coming months, CNBC has reported that former Greek Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos is among the candidates in the running for the job.

Romania's Q1 2019 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was 1.3pct higher in real terms than Q4 2018 GDP, and 5pct, both unadjusted and adjusted for seasonality, over Q1 2018, according to provisional data released on Monday by the National Institute of Statistics (INS).

European Union governments' surprise nominee for president of the European Commission, Germany Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen, sought support in the bloc's parliament on Wednesday, hoping to secure the confirmation she will need in two weeks' time.

Politicians from Balkan EU member states failed to obtain any top posts in the new Commission after hopes rose that Sergey Stanishev of Bulgaria, for example, might become the new president of the European Parliament.

European Council President Donald Tusk announced that an agreement has been reached on the allocation of senior positions in the EU.

On yesterday's meeting of European Council, the decision on the successor of Donald Tusk has been reached, so Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel was elected the new President of the European Council.
Former President Donald Tusk announced this information on his official Twitter account.

German defense minister Ursula von der Leyen may end up as European Commission President while IMF head Christine Lagarde may become new president of the European Central Bank following an agreement between France and Germany, said sources.

Kosovo will see significant price rises and an overall reduction in its purchasing power as a result of the high taxes it has imposed on imports from Serbia and Bosnia, experts have warned.

A recent assessment by Veritas Global, a Swiss company that provides economic services, claims that because of this significant fall in purchasing power, Kosovar citizens will buy less goods.