Mariana Nica

Romanian Foreign Affairs Minister Teodor Melescanu and his counterpart from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Sultan Al Jaber signed on Tuesday in Bucharest, the memorandum of understanding regarding the setting up of a cooperation committee between the two countries, a body that will regularly meet every two years.

The potential risk of commencing an investigation in the Competition Council concerning the tariff scheme must disappear, and on the General Assembly's agenda of next week there will be a cancellation of the decision to review the scheme, Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB) CEO Adrian Tanase said in an interview for AGERPRES.

The annual inflation rate went up to 5 percent in March 2018, from 4.7 percent in the previous month, on the grounds of non-food product prices going up by 6.57 percent, those of food products by 4.01 percent, and those of services by 2.9 percent.

A higher annual inflation rate was registered in June 2013, when consumer prices went up 5.37 percent.

The trade balance deficit went up 31.6 percent in the first two months of 2018 as against the similar period of 2017, to over 1.657 billion euro, reads a National Institute of Statistics (INS) release sent to AGERPRES on Tuesday.

An earthquake measuring 3.1 on the Richter scale occurred at 3:14 hrs on Tuesday morning in Buzau County, Vrancea seismic area, according to the National Research-Development for Earth Physics Institute (INFP).

The national currency may depreciate in the next period, after the analysts expected a key interest rate rise, and when they are disappointed they can react, the Governor of the National Bank of Romania (BNR), Mugur Isarescu said on Wednesday.

Hydrologists issued on Monday a code orange warning of flood valid until April 6 for the Danube River both downstream, the Calafat-Oltenita portion, as well as the Cernavoda-Galati portion and the Danube Delta.

Frigid weather will persist in the coming days in Bucharest, with snow expected to become abundant starting Monday evening, while the minimum temperatures will reach 18 degrees Celsius below zero, according to a special forecast for Bucharest released by the National Meteorology Administration (ANM), for the period February 26 - March 2, 2018.

The sum allocated this year for the support of the Romanian farmers willing to cultivate tomatoes in protected areas is worth 180 million lei, similar to the one of 2017, the debut year of this programme, with the number of the willing farmers having doubled, says the Agriculture and Rural Development Minister Petre Daea.

The National Union of Civil Servants (SNFP) will sue the state institutions for the discriminatory manner in which the 25% pay rise has been applied, as a result of the transfer of contributions from the employer to the employee.