Mariana Nica

The procedures on Unfair Commercial Practices, the Spirit Drinks Regulation and the Strategic Plans file in the post-2020 Common Agricultural Policy legislative package were analyzed on Wednesday by Agriculture Minister Petre Daea with working group experts in Brussels in the context of holding the presidency of the EU Council.

The black market of cigarettes rose slightly in November 2018, to 15.4pct of total consumption, by 0.1 percentage points more than in September 2018, according to a Novel Research survey.

The annual average illicit cigarette trade in 2018 is 16.3pct, up from 16pct as it was in 2017.

The accusation that the National Bank is pressuring banks in relation to the Romanian Interbank Offered Rate (ROBOR) index is nonsense, Governor of the National Bank of Romania (BNR) Mugur Isarescu stated on Tuesday, mentioning the interest rate is the main instrument of the monetary policy.

The arrivals in tourist accommodation structures registered in the first 11 months of 2018 reached 11.993 million, up 6.4pct compared to the similar period in 2017, according to data centralized by the National Institute of Statistics.

The industrial production prices (internal and external market) went up in November by 4.9pct as compared to the same month of 2017, and from month to month, November vs October 2018, they dropped by 0.8pct, according to the figures released on Friday by the National Statistics Institute (INS).

Romania's final energy consumption will increase between 2019 and 2022, with annual jumps of approximately 2.4 percent, the Energy Balance Forecast published in December by the National Commission for Strategy and Prognosis (CNSP) showed.

Insolvencies of trading companies and self-employed persons declined by 6.54 percent between 1 January and 30 November 2018 to 7,716, compared to the similar period of 2017, shows data published on the website of the National Trade Register Office (ONRC).

Over 4,000 users signed-up with the Start-Up Nation 2018 app and, at 12:45hrs, a number of 1,401 business plans had already been registered, three hours after the app was launched, Business Environment, Trade and Entrepreneurship Minister Stefan-Radu Oprea said on Thursday.

All structures involved in the Government Emergency Ordinance (OUG) on the fiscal-budgetary measures approved on Friday by the Executive have assumed the piece of legislation in its entirety, the Public Finance minister Eugen Teodorovici said at the end of the gov't sitting.

The national unemployment rate dropped to 3.9 percent in Q3, 2018, down 0.2 percentage points from the previous quarter, according to data released on Friday by the National Institute of Statistics (INS).