Romania – Factors to Watch on July 22

July 23, 2010 By Leave a Comment

July 22 (Reuters) – Here are news stories, press reports and events to watch which may affect Romanian financial markets on Thursday.

SUPREME COUNCIL OF MAGISTRATES

President Traian Basescu is expected to attend a meeting of the Supreme Council of Magistrates.

DEBT AUCTION

Romania’s finance ministry tenders 400 million lei in 10-year treasury bonds.

TAX CHECKS BOOST CASH-STRAPPED ROMANIA’S REVENUES

Romania increased tax inspections in June, bringing additional revenue of 908 million lei ($274.7 million) to the consolidated budget, up 41 percent on the year, it said on Wednesday. [ID:nLDE66K0W9]

ROMANIA EXHUMES REMAINS OF EX-DICTATOR CEAUSESCU

The graves of Romania’s former communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife Elena were dug up on Wednesday, some 20 years after their deaths, to check if they were truly buried there, their son-in-law said. [ID:nLDE66K11T]

GOVT LETTER OF INTENT TO THE IMF

The IMF has released Romania’s upgraded letter of intent which it sent at the end of June after hiking value added tax to ensure it meets key requirements of its aid package.

The coalition cabinet has requested waivers for most of its end-June performance criteria, including a deadline to pass a pension reform bill and a target to lower government arrears. Read the letter at:

here

LAYOFFS

About 57 percent of the 2,919 jobs from the interior ministry will be cut, as part of wider government efforts to downsize a bloated public administration, Minister Vasile Blaga said on Wednesday.

Some other 3,100 jobs will be cut from the farm ministry. The restructuring will bring yearly budget savings of 127 million lei ($37.97 million), Farm Minister Mihail Dumitru said.

Agerpres

STEEL PRODUCTION

Romania’s steel production rose by 64.5 percent in the first half of the year, to 1.86 million tonnes, according to the World Steel Association.

Ziarul Financiar, Page 8

SPECIAL PENSIONS

The government approved rules for cutting high pensions of special sectors like parliamentarians, diplomats or policemen on Wednesday.

NOTE- For a diary of forthcoming Romanian events, double

click [RO/DIARY], and a calendar of east European economic indicators, see [CONV/DIARY].

For other related news, double click on: ————————————————————— Romania Market Debt [RO-DBT] Romanian forex [RO-FRX] Romania Market Report [ROL/] Romanian money [RO-M] Emerging Market Debt [EMRG/DBT] Emerging forex [EMRG/FRX] All Emerging Markets news [EMRG] CEE indicators [CONV/DIARY] All East Europe News [EEU] E.Europe equities [.CEE] TOP NEWS — Emerging markets [TOP/EMRG] TOP NEWS — Convergence watch [TOP/EAST] Romanian indicators [RO/ECI] Main page of Reuters poll —————————————————–

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Mass protests against higher French pension age

May 29, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Hundreds of thousands of workers marched in cities across France on Thursday to protest government plans to raise the minimum retirement age of 60, a crucial part of a reform of the costly pension system.

Trade union leaders said the marches were the first step in a long struggle to defend the retirement age, which was reduced in a trademark reform of late Socialist President Francois Mitterrand.

The current government, struggling to bring its swollen deficit under control, says it has no choice but to raise it.

Unions estimated turnout across France at close to a million, well above the 800,000 they said joined in similar protests on March 23.

But police said 395,000 people had turned up and the centre-right government, which could struggle to implement its reforms if workers refuse to cooperate, sought to play down the size of the demonstrations.

“We quite clearly have had a weak turnout for the day,” government spokesman Luc Chatel told France Info radio.

Bernard Thibault, head of the powerful CGT union, called the day a success and threatened more action if the government goes ahead with the reforms.

“Only a show of force on the streets can defend the 60-year retirement age and the social achievements that (President) Nicolas Sarkozy is methodically attacking,” said Thibault, who marched in Paris.

His union estimated turnout in the capital, where rain forced the marchers to unfurl umbrellas, at 90,000. Police put the crowd at 22,000.

Public services reported between 10 and 20 percent of staff went on strike in schools, the post office and national telecoms provider France Telecom.

But transport services were working almost normally, with only a few flights and trains hit by staff walkouts.

Labour Minister Eric Woerth said earlier this week he saw no convincing alternative to raising the retirement age, and Budget Minister Francois Baroin said on Thursday a pension reform bill would be debated in parliament after the summer break.

Sarkozy added a partisan sting to the debate on Wednesday by saying, to loud protests from the opposition Socialists, that France would have “much fewer problems” if Mitterrand had not dropped the retirement age from 65 to 60 in 1983.

TRANSPORT PENSIONS UNTOUCHED

Socialist Party leader Martine Aubry joined the protesters in Lille, where she is mayor. Large marches were also reported from Marseille, Rouen, Bordeaux, Rennes and other cities, all with higher turnouts than in March.

According to a report last month by the government-appointed Pensions Advisory Council, France’s pension system faces a funding gap of around 70 billion euros ($86 billion) in 2030 and that could balloon to more than 100 billion euros by 2050.

French media say Paris is considering upping the retirement age to 62 or 63 years and extending the period during which contributions have to be paid to 42 years from 40.5 years by 2030. Sarkozy’s office said no decisions had been taken as yet.

Sarkozy has singled out an overhaul of the pension system as his government’s key reform project this year but his plans have already aroused strong opposition from unions.

The CGT’s Thibault said further protests could come before the summer break. CFDT union leader Francois Chereque said: “Things will happen over time. One protest will not suffice.”

The transport chaos that often accompanies strikes in France was mostly absent on Thursday, partly because the reform plan would not touch costly special pension schemes for transport workers, a powerful sector that brought an earlier conservative government to its knees in 1995 when it tried to reform them.

Labour Minister Woerth said the turnout on Thursday indicated that more French people were beginning to understand the government’s pension reform plans.

(Reporting by Gerard Bon and Laure Bretton, writing by Tom Heneghan, editing by Noah Barkin)

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FACTBOX – Austerity measures around eurozone

May 27, 2010 By Leave a Comment

REUTERS – Italy joined Europe’s austerity club late on Tuesday as its cabinet approved 24 billion euros of deficit-reducing cuts that could hit the popularity of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

Here are some details on austerity measures around the eurozone:

* ITALY:

– A late night cabinet meeting confirmed the overall 24 billion-euro deficit cut and measures such as the delay in retirement, the state salary freeze and cuts to the pay of high public sector earners.

– Regional and local governments will be pressed to contribute some 13 billion euros of spending cuts in 2011-2012, sources said, almost inevitably affecting schools and hospitals. Busy arteries such as Rome’s ring road may become toll roads.

– Though Italy kept its budget deficit down to 5.3 percent of GDP last year — well below the EU average — the budget aims to slash it to 2.7 percent by 2012.

* PORTUGAL:

– Prime Minister Jose Socrates and opposition leader Pedro Passos Coelho drew up steps to slash the budget deficit, including 5 percent pay cuts for senior public sector staff and politicians, and increases in VAT sales tax, income tax and profits tax ranging from one to 2.5 percent.

– The cabinet approved the programme on May 20. The government said it would cut the deficit to 7.3 percent of GDP in 2010 and 4.6 percent in 2011. In 2009 it hit 9.4 percent, prompting a sell-off of Portuguese assets by investors.

* FRANCE:

– French President Nicolas Sarkozy has said France will look to restore its public finances as the economic recovery takes root.

– In an effort to keep a lid on the budget deficit, France has said it will freeze all spending, bar pensions and interest payments, between 2011-2013 and cut state operating costs by 10 percent over the same period. Sarkozy has said this does not amount to an austerity plan.

* GREECE:

– Greece has approved a pension reform bill, after agreeing with the European Union and the International Monetary Fund a fresh set of austerity measures aimed at pulling the country out of a severe debt crisis that has shaken the euro zone.

– Under the EU-IMF deal, Greece plans to narrow its budget shortfall from 13.6 percent of gross domestic product in 2009 to 8.1 percent this year, 7.6 percent in 2011 and 2.6 percent in 2014.

– Austerity measures include a public sector pay freeze until 2014. Christmas, Easter and summer holiday bonuses, also known as 13th and 14th salaries, are abolished for civil servants earning above 3,000 euros a month and are capped at 1,000 euros for those earning less.

– Public sector allowances are cut by an additional 8 percent. These allowances, which account for a significant part of civil servants’ overall income, were cut by 12 percent under a round of austerity measures announced in March.

* TAX HIKES:

– The main VAT rate is increased by 2 percentage points to 23 percent. It had been raised to 21 percent from 19 percent in March.

– Excise taxes on fuel, cigarettes and alcohol are increased by a further 10 percent.

– The government expects to generate additional revenues through a one-off tax on highly profitable companies, as well as new gambling and gaming licences and more property taxes.

* PENSIONS:

– The government has said it will freeze pensions in 2010, 2011 and 2012.

– According to the pension bill, expected to be voted by parliament in June, the statutory retirement age for women will be raised by 5 years to 65 to match the retirement age for men.

* IRELAND:

* DEFICIT:

– The government’s budget for 2010 presented in December projected a deficit of 11.6 percent of gross domestic product. The median forecast of analysts polled by Reuters is for Ireland’s budget deficit to come in at 11.5 percent.

* AUSTERITY:

– Fiscal reform so far: 3 austerity budgets presented in little over a year, in Oct. 2008, April 2009 and Dec. 2010. With the first two budgets focused on tax rises, December’s budget for 2010 drew most praise as it delivered spending cuts of 4 billion euros, including a cut in public sector pay.

– Fresh savings worth 3 billion euros are planned for each of 2011 and 2012.

* SPAIN:

– Spain’s Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero announced on May 12 fresh spending cuts totalling 15 billion euros in 2010 and 2011. Civil service salaries will be cut by 5 percent in 2010 and frozen in 2011, while more than 6 billion euros will be cut from public investment.

– The cuts are aimed at speeding up fiscal consolidation and meet Spain’s revised deficit targets of 9.3 percent of GDP in 2010 and 6 percent in 2011, compared with 11.2 percent in 2009.

– Public debt as a percentage of GDP is seen at 65.9 percent in 2010, rising to 71.9 percent in 2011.

Source: Reuters Bureaux

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