Press Review - September 14, 2018

09.14.2018 By Oana Gavrila

Leu Firms Slightly Vs Euro

The Romanian leu firmed slightly against the euro Thursday and the central bank calculated a reference rate of 4.6391 lei/euro at midday, from Wednesday's rate of  4.6393 lei/euro.

The leu also firmed to 3.9930 units against the US dollar Thursday, from 4.0011 units on Wednesday.

Romania's External Debt Grows by EUR4.1B in January-July

Romania's total external debt grew by EUR4.1 billion from end-December 2017, standing at EUR97.582 billion at the end of July, central bank data showed Thursday.

Long-term debt stood at EUR66.95 billion, accounting for 68.6% of the total external debt.

Romania's current account balance posted a deficit of EUR4.811 billion in January-July, compared with a deficit of EUR4.162 billion in the same period last year.

Social-Democrat County Leaders Discussed Withdrawing Support For Dragnea

More than twenty leaders of the Social Democrat Party’s (PSD) county organizations, together with deputy PM Paul Stanescu, have discussed a possible withdrawal of political support for PSD chairman Liviu Dragnea on Thursday, party sources told Mediafax.

“Deputy Prime Minister Paul Stanescu, Minister of Regional Development and chairman of PSD Olt, discussed with other chairmen of social-democrat county organizations the possibility of retracting political support for party chairman Liviu Dragnea,” the aforementioned sources told MEDIAFAX on Wednesday.

They specified that PSD Giurgiu interim chairman Niculae Badalau was among the county leaders who took part in the talks, and also that political support for PM Viorica Dancila was not discussed.

A meeting of PSD’s extended top brass to assess ministerial activity, during which the issue might be brought up, is expected to take place in the following weeks.

Social-democrat leader Liviu Dragnea has been heavily criticized by party colleague and Bucharest Mayor Gabriela Firea recently, who accused him of leading the party “in a dictatorial manner” and of using his influence on the Government to stall projects beneficial to the country’s capital.