The Renault-owned car producer Dacia Pitesti has stopped its entire production on Monday, for the fifth time during the past several months. 14,000 employees will stay at home until February 9, receiving 85% of their gross income, without incentives.

The decision comes as a result of the fast decreasing demand on all car markets, but mainly because of the crash of the Romanian market. Last time, Dacia shut down the production for a month, until January 12.

Dacia general manager Francois Fourmont recently declared that Dacia would try to survive the crisis until March by temporarily halting production but, in case the measure proves to be insufficient, an entire shift may be made redundant - some 3,000-4,000.

The producer hopes to find some help from authorities, including the buy-back program for old cars, in which owners receive deductions when acquiring a new car. Fourmont also supports the tripled pollution tax imposed by the new Government (and considered as improper by the European Commission), so that new cars, not second-hand cars, would sell better.