What the newspapers say: May 1, 2009

Celebrating the Labor day with a typical local flavor, newspapers remind that Romanians have a wonderful attitude towards working, but lack efficiency. The banks that start to see the rates being paid later and later every month directly feel this lack of efficiency.

The „good client” is an endangered species in Romania, the number of those failing to pay their rates towards banks in proper time decreasing abruptly. The number of those who simply stop paying is also increasing, according to Nicolae Cinteza, manager of the Surveillance Department in the Central Bank (BNR). The main problem is with the larger credits, over 20,000 RON (some 5,000 Euros), Evenimentul Zilei reads.

Another predictable effect of the crisis is that the purchase power of Romanians will decrease 1.9% this year, Evenimentul Zilei found out. The situation will not improve in 2010, but some recovery is expected in 2011, when the purchase power will increase 1.1%.

Even worse, small private companies rush towards the Commerce Registry in order to shut down their businesses. Most of them blame the lump tax of 500 Euros (for the smallest businesses) for this situation, Romania Libera reads.

Meanwhile, the state proves once again that it is the worst manager: according to Cotidianul, the Romanian state borrowed 6 billion Euros so far, from the private market, in a period in which the pensions and salaries were roughly equal to this amount.

Still Romanians love to go to work, or at least that’s the official statement they make when questioned. For family (81%), job (56%) and religion (54%) are the most important things in the life of a Romanian, a recent study quoted by Cotidianul reveals. Even more, three quarters of all Romanians consider that it is humiliating to receive money they didn’t work for (only 5% are against the idea). The study also reveals that working hard is not a true solution for Romanians, since Romania records one of the lowest levels of labor efficiency in Europe.