RSS
Economic
Romanian Housing Prices Fall 5.3% During 1H
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Asking prices for housing in Romania’s largest cities dropped by an average 5.3% in the first half of this year compared to the end of 2009, according to data from property website imobiliare.ro. Thus, the average price for housing reached EUR1,163 per square meter in June, from EUR1,228sqm in December 2009, which shows owners are less willing to go lower this year. The average price stood at EUR1,245sqm in June 2009, which represented a 44% decrease compared to March 2008. Owners ...
INS: Residential prices down 3.9 pct in Q1 2010
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Prices of residential properties fell 3.9 pct in the first quarter of 2010 against the baseline year of 2009, reads a release of the National Statistics Institute (INS). The price decrease was noticeable for both property categories: ask prices for apartments dropped 3.8 percent in Q1 2010 y-o-y, while house prices also decreased 4.3 percent from the same reference. For the first time, INS released on Tuesday information on the evolution of residential property prices. ...
More than 6,900 doctors prepare to leave the country in 2010
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Nearly 6,900 Romanian doctors have signed this year with recruitment companies to work abroad, following other 5,000 doctors who left Romania over the past three years, Ziarul Financiar daily reads on Monday. 'This year, the situation is more dramatic, with no less than 6,900 pre-contracts having already been signed at the job fairs. These doctors have already signed their contracts with the employers, so that they know exactly where they are going, with only certain formalities ...
Romanian retail trade turnover dwindles
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
The Romanian retail trade turnover (except for the trade in vehicles and motorcycles) dwindled by 5.9 percent as gross series and by 6.7 percent as adjusted series - depending on the number of workdays and seasonality - in the five months of this year from the same period in 2009, show figures centralised by the National Institute of Statistics.The drop was the result of the curbed sales of foodstuffs, beverages and tobacco at minus 7.4 percent, the curbed sales of non-foodstuffs ...
Eurostat:Prices for alcoholic beverages in Romania, the lowest in EU against EU average
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Prices for alcoholic beverages in Romania are the lowest in the European Union compared with the EU average, just 70 percent of it, while the same prices in Finland (170 of the EU average), Ireland (167 percent) and Sweden (138 percent) are the highest, according to data released on Monday by the Eurostat statistics office of the EU.As far as prices for tobacco are concerned, they are lower than the EU average in Bulgaria (46 percent of the average), Romania (47 percent), Lithuania ...
Hilton wants to build hotel in Timisoara
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Hilton wants to build in Timisoara a five star hotel to replace Nicolae Ceausescu’s former residence held at present by a firm controlled by Timis County Countil and by Tender company, the County chairman Constantin Ostaficiuc announced. He declared, at a press conference, that the hotel chain made an offer to Inter Center Service where Timis County Council and Tender company are shareholders, to build a five star hotel in the place of the former Party Hotel. The suggestion will be discussed ...
Vodafone launches smartphone, tablet PC SIM
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Vodafone, the largest telecom carrier in Romania, has unveiled its micro-sim, to meet the needs of smartphone and tablet PC users.The persons interested in the service can sign up on www.microsim.ro website.“The introduction of micro-SIM card in Romania comes to meet smartpone and table PC users’ needs. Micro-SIM will address a wide variety of devices in the future”, said Lee Wilkins, senior manager of the carrier.Vodafone Micro-SIM card is provisioned for voice and data services and are ...
UPC: Internet is cheaper and faster in Romania than in Western Europe
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
The tough competition among the telcom operators is to the advantage of the Internet users in Central and Eastern Europe, because the speed, the price and the quality of the Internet services are more advantageous in capital cities like Bucharest, Budapest or Warsaw, than in many western cities, says Manuel Kohnstamm a manger at the US Liberty Global Group that owns UPC Romania, the third biggest Internet supplier, in terms of number of users.The Central and Eastern European economies were ...
Romanian Mobile Operators To Set Cut-Off Limit For Roaming Data Transfers As Of July 1
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Mobile operators will impose a cut-off limit for roaming services as of July 1 for clients who have not chosen a cut-off limit, Romania’s telecom regulator ANCOM said ."The default cut-off limit applied by operators will be of maximum EUR50 per month, net of VAT. Users may choose a different cut-off limit or may choose to have no limit at all," the regulator said. Under this mechanism, mobile operators will, following a warning, cut consumers' mobile connection to the internet while abroad ...
Mobile telecom carriers to face roaming charge restrictions
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Mobile telecom carriers will impose as of July 1 a mobile roaming fee cap for the end users who didn’t opt for any of the maximum ceilings proposed for the use of roaming services.According to the National Authority for Communications Administration and Regulation, carriers will suspend roaming services for users who hadn't specified they wanted to continue roaming.These measures are in line with the European directives in the communications sector.Therefore, as of July 1, carriers will ...
Sales of high-alcohol beer reach 15 million euros
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Stejar beer brand, owned by the local market leader Ursus Breweries, was recently launched, following the increase in the alcohol content from 5.5 percent to 7 percent, and the change of its packaging. The beer producer's representatives claim that following these changes, the strong beer market will reach 1 percent of the local beer sales in the next 18 months, that is over 17 million litres and 15 million euros, according to the estimations made by Ziarul financiar daily.'By ...
Carrefour opens fourth supermarket in Bucharest
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Carrefour will open on Friday its fourth supermarket in Bucharest, Carrefour Market Ghencea. The new store will have a retail area of 1,200 sqm and will create 78 jobs, the retailer said on Thursday.Carrefour Market Ghencea will be located on Ghencea Street No. 126-132, District 6, Bucharest , in an area with around 7,000 households and 17,500 inhabitants.The store will be opened from Monday to Saturday between 8:00 and 22:00 and on Sunday between 8:00 and 20:00 and will market around ...
H&M opens store in Romania
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
The Swedish clothing company H&M (Hennes&Mauritz) will open its first store in Romania, in spring next year, according the financial report of the company. “Croatia and Romania will become new H&M countries with openings in Zagreb and Bucharest during the spring of 2011”, the clothing company said in its six-month financial report.Real estate consultant Krammer & Wagner, that handled the lease of retail park Militari Shopping Center, said in March that H&M (Hennes&Mauritz) was in ...
Metro to open at least one Metro Point by year-end
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
German retailer Metro Cash & Carry, one of the largest retailers in Romania with investments of over €1 billion in the local market said it would open at least one Metro Point, a smaller reseller store, by the end of the year. “We plan to open at least one Metro Point, but for the time being we’re searching for a location for the store”, the company said. The unit will be opened by the end of the year. Company officials added that the new store will have the same size as the unit it had ...
How transparent is real estate market in Romania
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Romania ranks 32nd in a top of the most transparent 81 real estate markets in the world, on the rise by four positions compared to 2008 and 26 against 2006, a study made by the consulting company Jones Lang LaSalle shows. In the last 6 years Romania grew gradually from an opaque market (in 2004) to a market with low transparency (2006) and to a semi-transparent real estate market (2008 and 2010).Romania received 2.68 points this year in the context in which the points granted by the 81 ...
Mercy Hospital President: Romania should increase GDP percentage earmarked for hospitals
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Ronald R. Reed, president and CEO of the Mercy Hospital in Iowa says more money has to be assigned to the Romanian hospitals and there should be a financing level, so that they should not depend on the economic fluctuations. 'I believe, over time, Romania must increase the financing level, the percentage of the GDP earmarked for hospitals, otherwise you risk losing doctors, highly efficient nurses. If they have extremely low salaries, they may leave for other countries,' Ronald R. ...
Hipocrat 2000 opens a new clinic in former casino building
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
The private medical service operator Hipocrat 2000 is opening a new clinic in Rahova area, Bucharest, in the building of a former casino.The new medical unit is located on a 600sq.m land and has four stories.The monthly rent per square meter in the area is 8-10 euro plus VAT, according to real estate consultants.Hipocrat 2000 clinic in Rahova Avenue is one of the largest medical units in the area, in competition with smaller units like Lil Med or Rahova Medical Center specialized in medical ...
Dacian Ciolos: Rural development groups must become an interface between producers and authorities
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
EU Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development Dacian Ciolos hopes the rural development groups will become a real interface between producers and the authorities in Romania as well.'I hope we will be wise enough not to allow these groups be taken over from political or administrative point of view, as this would be to the detriment of real development. We must have the courage to assume local initiative, not to be afraid of it. Thus, based on this bottom-up initiative, new paradigms ...
Delta Welcomes TAROM into SkyTeam Alliance
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL) welcomed Romania's flag carrier, TAROM, as the newest member of the SkyTeam global airline alliance. With TAROM's entrance, Delta customers immediately gain the ability to earn and redeem SkyMiles on TAROM flights, as well as access to 11 additional destinations not offered by other SkyTeam airlines including: Iasi, Cluj-Napoca, Constanta and Timisoara, Romania and Chisinau, Moldova. "Improving our customers' access to important commercial regions in Europe ...
Ferry line of 5.5 mln euros for trade on Danube, in Zimnicea
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
InterAgro Co. has invested some 5.5 million euros in a ferry line destined to cross the Danube between Zimnicea and Sistov locality in Bulgaria and the first trip will be operated on Sunday, announced Ioan Niculae, group's owner.'Following a private investment of InterAgro group in value of 5.5 million euros, together with the authorities south of the Danube (Bulgaria - editor's note), one of the largest ferry was built on the river, with a constructed surface of 600 square meters and a ...