The credits market decreased significantly during the first months of the year. Even more, the foreign loan Romania prepares to negotiate with the International Monetary Fund and other international institutions, in order to re-launch the financial system and the economy, is not necessarily a solution, given the history between Romania and the IMF, newspapers comment. Far from surprising, Romanians enter the top ten of the European beer drinkers.

40 Romanians were tortured, threatened to be killed and sold from one employer to another in a modern slavery network in the Czech Republic, Evenimentul Zilei reads. The starving workers were held at gunpoint by Ukrainian guards on asparagus plantations or slaughter houses and were put to work from sunrise to sunset, without any other pay than some boiled potatoes and two loafs of bread.

Back in Romania, judges are far from fearing low wages, but need insurance that their hard work is compensated. To do so, the Justice Ministry ignored the call for austerity of the government and decided to offer a 50% bonus for all judges as "incentive for risk and neurological and psychological stress", Gandul reads.

On the financial market, credits are still stuck. According to the Credits Office (the institution centralizing the unpaid debt of natural persons and companies towards banks), the number of status interrogations from banks decreased 40%, compared to the same period last year. At the same time, the unpaid debt increased 15%, Cotidianul informs.

The unblocking of this market through foreign financing, decided by the Government, is questioned by the same Cotidianul. "Out of ten agreements with the International Monetary Fund, only two of them were completed, by Nicolae Ceausescu and Prime Minister Adrian Nastase", the newspaper reminds. In most agreements, Romania broke the contract after receiving the first share of the loans. In this case, by coincidence, the first share would be some 4 billion Euros, exactly the amount necessary to finance the public sector, according to recent statements of the Central Bank Governor, Mugur Isarescu.

Related or not to this news, Romanians entered the top ten of European beer drinkers, with 93 liters per person, per year, 4 liters more than in 2007 and 27 liters more than in 2004, the Romanian Brewers Association informs, quoted by Gandul. 70% of the beer on the market is drunk at home, while only 30% accounts for the consumption in pubs, clubs and restaurants. 85% of the Romanians over 18-years old and 56% of the women are constant beer drinkers, while 97.5% of the beer is produced locally.