What the newspapers say: April 30, 2009

Central and East European Countries are once again falling behind the Western economies, after a few years of rapid growth, being roughly affected by the crisis. In local news, the Central Bank is more and more often called to decrease the interest rate.

Five years after joining the European Union, ten states in the Central and Eastern Europe see their economic growth stopped by the crisis. The effort to reduce the differences between the East and West in Europe seems compromised for the moment. Despite all problems, the EU enlargement benefitted the Eastern states. Salaries increased between 30 and 50%, the unemployment rate decreased between 4 and 10% and the living conditions have improved during the past five years, Evenimentul Zilei reads.

The Central Bank has to decrease the key interest rate in order to re-launch the credit, the BRD Societe Generale general manager, Patrick Gelin, declared on Wednesday, warning that the demand for credits is very low, Gandul notes.

The better news of the day is that Romania was within the deficit target established for the first quarter with the International Monetary Fund, namely 1.5% of the GDP, Finance Minister Gheorghe Pogea announced on Wednesday, according to Cotidianul. Budget income decreased 5.5%, compared to Q1 in 2008, while the expenses increased 14%.