Romania's Q1 2017 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) advanced 5.7 percent in unadjusted terms and 5.6 percent in terms adjusted for seasonality, both against the same quarter of 2016, according to flash estimates released by the National Institute of Statistics (INS). The Q1 2017 GDP was 1.7 percent higher in real terms than the Q4 2016 GDP. 

INS says the seasonally adjusted series of quarterly Gross Domestic Product was readjusted as a result of the introduction of the estimates for Q1 2017, the revision being insignificant as compared to the version published on April 7, 2017.

Banca Comerciala Romana posted a net profit of 196.3 million lei (43.4 million euro) in the first quarter of 2017, the bank's representatives announced. 

The operating result was 338.0 million lei (74.7 million euro), 2.3 percent higher than the 330.6 lei (74.7 million euro) in the previous year, as an effect of lower operating revenues (under the impact of the settlement of the portfolio of underperforming loans and of lower interest rates) coupled with lower costs. 

The share capital of the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB) will grow to 80.7 million lei after the decision by the Extraordinary General Shareholders Meeting on the merger by absorption with SIBEX, a release on the BVB website reads. "By majority of votes of the shareholders present and represented in the meeting, the merger through absorption is approved between the Bucharest Stock Exchange as absorbing society and SIBEX - Sibiu Stock Exchange, as absorbed society, in accordance with the terms and conditions foreseen within the merger draft dated 24 February 2017," the document says. 

The board of the Financial Oversight Authority (ASF) has fined NN Pensii pension company 1 percent of its share capital, namely 750,000 lei, for having sent an e-mail to its costumers alleging that public talks had been held about Romania's privately-managed pension plan being nationalised, ASF Deputy Chairman Ion Giurescu said Thursday. 

'Following the statements released by NN on April 11 to the fund's contributors, we decided yesterday [Wednesday] to hold a hearing of the NN Fund administration board made up of three people: Marius Popescu, Raluca Tintoiu and Madalina Ecaterina Ducan. Raluca Tintoiu is also the manager of NN Pensii. Only two of the three showed up, as Marius Daniel Popescu was on leave.

The Public Finance Ministry is working at a draft act amending the Tax Code, with envisaged measures including the introduction of a 10 percent flat tax from 1 January, the granting of certain tax deductions and the introduction of the fiscally acknowledged household, Finance Minister Viorel Stefan announced. 

"Joint teams have been working at the MFP (...) on transposing into a regulatory act the idea to reorganise the way the tax income is administrated, aiming to reintroduce the incomes' globalisation and the global incomes' taxation. This under no circumstances means new taxes, new forms of taxation, we talk about the same flat tax which is today 16 percent and the intention is to make it 10 percent starting with 1 January 2018, and apply it to the globalised incomes, to all incomes regardless their source," Stefan told in a press conference at the Victoria Palace.

The establishment of some public procurement central units could annually generate savings of over 1.8 billion euro to the state budget, which represents 10 pct of all public procurement conducted each year in Romania, is the conclusion of a diagnosis-study on resources' waste in the absence of national coordination, presented by experts of the Institute for Public Policy. 

Hourly labour costs ranged from 4.4 euros to 42.0 euros across the EU member states in 2016, having been the lowest in Bulgaria and Romania - 4.4 euros and 5.5 euros, respectively - and the highest in Denmark and Belgium - 42.0 euros and 39.2 euros, respectively - according to date released on Thursday by the Eurostat statistics office of the EU. 

Developments in hourly labour costs in Romania has been inconsistent, from 1.9 euros in 2014, to 4.2 euros in 2008 and 4.1 euros in 2012, going up to 4.6 euros in 2014, to 4.9 euros in 2015 and to 5.5 euros in 2016. Throughout these years, Romania and Bulgaria kept recording the lowest such costs in the EU.