POLITICS

Substantial pensions and salaries, properties and bank accounts in Romania and abroad, jewellery, paintings, gold bars, are all included in the wealth declarations filed by the 14 candidates in this year’s presidential election. Citizens of Romania head to the polls this Sunday (Nov. 24) to elect a new president as the outgoing center-right incumbent Klaus Iohannis ends his second term and a decade in office. The presidential election is expected to go to a runoff on Dec. 8, 2024.

ECONOMY

-In the third quarter 2024, the number of job vacancies was 39.9 thousand, increasing by 5.4
thousand as against the previous quarter, the National Institute of Statistics (INS) said on Tuesday. The job vacancies rate estimated for the 3 rd quarter 2024 was 0.78%, increasing by 0.11 percentage points as against the previous quarter.

– For the first time in modern history, Hungary holds more gold reserves than Romania. The Hungarian National Bank (MNB) decided to raise the volume of monetary gold in its international reserves from 94.5 tonnes to 110 tonnes, the neighbour country’s central bank announced on September 30. Romania ranks 39th globally in terms of international gold reserves and sixth in the Eastern Europe.

-Minister of Economy, Entrepreneurship, and Tourism Radu Oprea said the energy price cap should be maintained even after March 2025, until the government finds the right solutions to ensure that energy prices remain low, Agerpres reported.

FINANCE

– The administrator and operator of the Automated Clearing House for interbank retail
payments Transfond and the Romanian Association of Banks have officially launched RoPay, which serves as an instant mobile payment initiation service that facilitates direct account-to-account transfers. It utilises technologies such as QR code scanning, deep links, NFC (contactless), and mobile numbers as proxies for IBANs. The RoPay project positions Romania on the map of European landmark initiatives in the field of retail payments, Leonardo Badea, deputy governor of the National Bank of Romania (BNR), told the launch event of the RoPay service on Monday (Nov. 18).

-Bulgaria-based tbi bank, which operates on several markets including Romania, recorded net profit of EUR 38 million for the first 9 months of 2024 – 34% higher YoY (based on unaudited consolidated financial results).

COMPANIES

-More than 70,000 jobs have been available in the past five months on iajob.ro that local online platform eJobs.ro has launched this year for candidates who want to get a job fast without undergoing the traditional stages of a recruitment process.

TODAY’S MARKET DATA

EXCHANGE RATE OF THE NATIONAL LEU CURRENCY

(Source: National Bank of Romania BNR)

BUCHAREST STOCK EXCHANGE (BVB) INDICES

CAPITAL MARKET COMMENTARY