Simona Klodnischi

As of November 27, 2020 optional pension funds held assets worth over 2.8 bln lei, up 15.26 percent YoY, the Financial Supervisory Authority (ASF) announced. Government securities account for the highest share of this amount, with 1.825 bln lei (64.10 pct), followed by stocks with 712.819 mln lei (25.03 pct) and units in collective investment undertakings with 93.556 mln lei (3.29 pct).

Romanian alpine ski racer Ania Caill managed to finish on the podium in both super giant slalom events held on Wednesday in Flaine (France) under the auspices of the International Ski Federation.

Assets of mandatory privately managed pension funds amounted to over 73.145 billion lei as of November 27, 2020, up 20 percent YoY, shows data of the Financial Supervisory Authority (ASF). Government securities account for the largest share in assets with 49.73 billion lei (68 pct), followed by stocks with 15.158 billion lei (20.72 pct) and corporate bonds with 2.98 billion lei (4.07 pct).

The Romanian economy is expected to grow 3.5 percent this year, after a contraction of 5 percent in 2020, and is next seen picking up to 4.1 percent in 2022, according to the World Bank's January 2021 Global Economic Prospects, the financial organization's latest report on the outlooks for the world economy.

The National Energy Regulatory Authority (ANRE) has extended until March 31, 2021 the deadline until which household consumers can conclude energy supply contracts on the competitive market, ANRE vice president Zoltan Nagy-Bege told AGERPRES on Monday.

The National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) asked the General Prosecutor's Office to notify President Klaus Iohannis for the start of the criminal investigation of the former Minister of Environment, Waters and Forests Costel Alexe - currently president of the Iasi County Council - for bribe-taking and inciting embezzlement.

The National COVID Vaccination Coordination Committee informs today that according to data provided by the National Public Health Institute through the National Electronic Vaccinations Registry app, 1,586 people have received the Pfizer BioNTech jab for coronavirus in the past 24 hours. According to a release, 13,242 people have been vaccinated so far for COVID-19.

Lower House Speaker and Liberal Chairman Ludovic Orban remarked in his New Year's message that 2020 was "perhaps the toughest year in our recent history", "a year of war that isn't over yet, but which we hope will end soon." Orban also voices his confidence that by mid-2021 vaccination will bring the pandemic to a halt.

Romania's novel coronavirus caseload increased by a total of 5,132 since our last report - 3,938 on January 1 and 1,194 on January 2 - following 20,391 national tests performed, taking the total number of infected persons to 637,395, the Strategic Communication Group (GCS) reported today. These are all cases that have not previously had a positive test, the GCS states.

The passage to a new year has been accompanied since ancient times by customs and rituals that are being observed even to this date, particularly in Romanian villages.