What the newspapers say: January 30, 2009

All newspapers on Friday read about the final 2009 budget announced yesterday. Elsewhere in the news, PSD leader Mircea Geoana accuses foreign investors of ditching Romania in hard times after having increased returns so far.

Cotidianul reads that the new 2009 budget reflects the crisis: salaries and pensions will only grow by 5% and personnel spending will decrease by 20%, the Government decided on Thursday. Plus, supplementary hours will no longer be paid.

Due to limited budgetary resources, salaries and pensions will increase by 5% in several stages: starting April, they will increase by 3% and starting October by 2%. PM Boc explained that lower pensions, below 300 Romanian Ron will increase to 300 Ron by April and to 350 Ron by October. The budgetary effort for this increase totals to 190 million euro.

Regarding the increase of professor’s salaries, Boc declared that it all depends on the reform process within the education system. Boc presented a list of social and economic measures, part of the anti-crisis measures which will be applied either this year or next year.

The budget, approved by the Government will have to be approved by the social partners and only afterwards presented to the Parliament.

Gandul reads that salaries will not freeze, but will increase only by 5%, just to cover the inflation. Labor minister Marian Sarbu declared that he couldn’t deny the demagogy within the electoral campaign.

The newspaper reads that after more than a month of talks the government finally managed to present a budget. Employees who work to attract EU funds will no longer receive a 75% bonus that they received until now. Moreover, the paper reads that the government allocated over 1 billion euro for investments, representing 7% of the GDP.

The budget is set up with an economic growth of 2.5%, a 2% budgetary deficit and an inflation rate of 5% with a GDP totaling 144.7 billion euro.

Evenimentul Zilei reads that President Basescu urged the government to allocate money to building highways. Basescu underlined the need of the government to create jobs and to offer firms something to work on, offering transports as an example.

Elsewhere in the news, PSD leader Mircea Geoana accuses foreign banks of withdrawing their capital from Romanian banks, Cotidianul reads. He thus urged the government to have a clear cut discussion with Austria and France to put an end to this phenomenon.

Geoana declared that foreign investors lacked any sense of fair play by doing this. Geoana declared that officials needed to present the situation bluntly, arguing that the Romanian economy has returned serious profits for foreigners and the latter should support it in harsh times, not abandon it.

National Central Bank authorities declared for the newspaper that no bank in Romania was working through off shore companies since Romania cannot afford such risks.