What the newspapers say: June 24, 2008

Tuesday is a day for poverty, or at least it looks as if it were. Romanians borrow money from banks just to pay their housekeeping debt. Real estate acquisition credits are less demanded than ever. Even the football players in the national team have to settle for a 6,000 euro bonus after the Euro 2008 games (where they claim they had to pay for their own refreshments during training). But, as in all fairy tales, it may be a brighter side to this story: Dacia – producing one of the cheapest cars in Europe – became the second largest company in Romania.

In one of the most emotional stories that was brought to the headlines in the past years, the 11-year old pregnant girl raped by her uncle was offered the chance to go to the UK for an abortion. The legal age of the fetus that can be aborted in the United Kingdom is 24 weeks, Evenimentul Zilei. With her 20-weeks pregnancy, the girl was sentenced to give birth in Romania.

Some 20% of the Romanians who ask for loans are „in a temporary lack of cash” period. They ask for little money, just to pay their house maintenance bills or pay other debts, a study conducted by the Group for Applied Economics (GEA) indicates, according to Evenimentul Zilei. The same study reveals that 40% of all Romanians can not support the burden of a credit and 70% of the populace did not ask for a loan in the past 6 years.

Also in Evenimentul Zilei, the bad news about cash peak when it comes to football: the members of the national team got only 6,000 euro each after the games in the Euro 2008 championship. Even more, some claim they had to buy their own refreshments during the trainings.

It’s not the same for all football players, some might say, and they’d be right: Steaua Bucharest received 7.8 million euro from UEFA for its participation in the Champions’ League games, even though it only won one point and lost the qualification from the groups stage, Gandul notes.

Despite this small victory, the Steaua „cash man”, Gigi Becali, was banned from all stadiums in Romania for two years, due to the „cash bag” scandal at the end of the championship, when he attempted to „stimulate” a team in Cluj, so that Steaua would turn out champion, same Gandul reads.

In business, the lack of cash in Romania isn’t all that tragic: since they earn less, Romanians buy cheaper things. And Dacia, the Renault-owned producer of Europe’s (probably) cheapest car has won the bet for the market. With hundreds of thousands of units sold until now, Dacia became the second largest company in Romania, after the national oil and gas company, Petrom, Gandul informs.

The good news is that the always-blooming real estate market may soon return to more „normal” values. Older apartments may cost 15% less at the end of 2008, given the recent blockage on the market, says Ruxandra Cleciu, president of the Real Estate Agencies’ Association, according to Cotidianul.