The teachers' strike continues, the European Commission estimates an inflation level well above the one expected by the Romanian Government and the credits become real traps for consumers, who risk losing a lot more than they ever imagined.
The Senate will discuss today the Governmental ordinance postponing the teachers' 50% raise until April, Evenimentul Zilei reads, adding that it's most likely for the Ordinance to be rejected. Meanwhile, the teachers in the Spiru Haret union are still on strike and their colleagues in three other unions are about to join them on November 10. Unions in the National Railroad Company (CFR) and the health case system also threaten to go on strike during the following weeks.
The Romanian Central Bank (BNR) revised its inflation estimations from 6.6 to 6.7% in 2008 and from 4.2 to 4.5% in 2009. The figures are below the European Commission's estimations, which point at a 7.8% inflation in Romania in 2008 and 5.7% in 2009, same Evenimentul Zilei reads.
Cotidianul adds to the figures above the fact that the European Commission also expects Romania to have a 3.5% budgetary deficit, above the limit imposed by the Maastricht Treaty, as well as a decreasing current account deficit, due to the higher inflation rate.
Meanwhile, Romanians prove to be extremely skeptical when it comes to shopping, preferring official representatives and dealers of companies to normal stores and not trusting labels and the words of salesmen. Romanians and Bulgarians are the least enthusiast when it comes to online shopping and have the lowest amounts on money spent online, despite the fact that the two countries have the lowest taxes on online trading, Gandul reads.
For other Romanians, it is too late to be prudent, and they risk to lose the homes they intended to buy and the down payments they already paid for it. After the new credit rules were applied, a few hundreds of clients found out that they may access less funds than first approved, the final amount offered being far from sufficient to cover the costs of the house acquisition. They also lost the advance payment to the house seller, Cotidianul reads.
The good news of the day, if one may call this story good news, is that the Romanian hacker extradited to Italy to serve three years in jail for online frauds, Bogdan Gabriel Ionescu, obtained the highest grade ever in the history of admission exams at the IT Engineering Faculty in Milan, also finishing the exam in the shortest time ever - 18 minutes, Jurnalul National reads. Only 15% of the candidates passed the three-hour exam. Romanian authorities lobby for the youngster to have the sentence commuted to house arrest.
