Romania | News

Steven van Rijswijk, ING Group CEO, says Romania is a good market, its economy has weathered previous and current crises well, and the Dutch group’s desire is to grow further on its banking market.

One of the biggest green energy portfolios underway locally has UAE’s Masdar and Romania’s biggest energy producer Hidroelectrica behind it.

Motorola Mobility, part of China’s Lenovo Group, has constantly grown in Romania in the last few years, reaching 300,000 phone activations (phones purchased and activated by insertion of a SIM card) in 2022, 100,000 more than in 2021, the representatives of the Romanian subsidiary said.

The De’Longhi unit that handles import and wholesale of home appliances in Romania budgeted growth again in 2023, after a 9% increase in sales last year.

Low-price fashion retailer Takko, which has been operating in Romania for more than 15 years, has budgeted seven new stores for 2023, but the actual opening pace will depend on the progress of the retail project inauguration.

Acronis, a global company developing cybersecurity technologies, headquartered in Singapore and Switzerland, in 2022 went past the 100-employee mark in Romania, in line with Finance Ministry data.

Sphera Franchise Group, which holds the franchise for the KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, has reached the milestone of 100 KFC restaurants in Romania which employ more than 3,700 people countrywide, from over 20 nationalities, including South Africa, Sri Lanka, Dominican Republic, Venezuela.

Polish discounter Pepco has come to own in Romania more than 410 units and wants to continue its fast expansion, aiming to open 40 units in 2023.

Romania’s finance ministry will be launching new government bond issues for the general population only, starting Thursday (April 12, 2023), through the TEZAUR program.

More than 100,000 foreigners work in Romania, with most of them coming from Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan.

Vlad Stanislav has been appointed to the position of Managing Director of real estate consulting firm JLL in Romania.

Zentiva Group, held by private equity firm Advent International, has put Zsolt Baranyai in charge of the production operations in Romania, replacing Margareta Tanase, who retired after working for Zentiva plant in Bucharest for 37 years.

Book sales in Romania stand at about RON500 million, which includes print books, e-books and audiobooks, data from audiobook and e-book streaming service Voxa show.

Romania has been a strong performer among emerging economies, though periods of economic overheating have caused concern at times, but economic perspectives have deteriorated significantly since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as per an analysis by Allianz Trade.

The largest golf resort in Romania will be developed in the Niculesti commune (Dambovita County) following an investment of EUR60 million carried out by Turkish-Romanian businessman Metin Doğan.

HCLTech, which provides consulting and IT services and has 1,000 employees in Romania, plans to expand its offices in the cities of Bucharest and Iasi and to double its staff numbers over the next two years, company representatives said in a statement.

In 2022, the average annual number of job vacancies in Romania was 45.1 thousand, increasing by 2.4 thousand as against the previous year.

Half (52%) of the chief executive officers in Romania are confident about an increase in the revenue of the companies they run in the following year, but at the same time a quarter believe their organizations will not survive ten years from now if they continue as they are today and do not make transformation decisions, PwC CEO Survey 2023 report shows.

Romania’s economic growth will slow down in the first half, following a decline in household spending, investments and the compression of the export growth rate, but has solid prospects of a later rebound and will reach 2.8% by the end of the year, OTP Bank analysts estimate.

Housing prices rose, between 2015-2021, by 38% on average in the EU, with Romania having the lowest price increase in CEE, of 34%, reveals a recent Colliers report.