First financial semester

• 1st January

- Mandatory electronic invoicing comes into force for all transactions made between taxable persons established on the territory of the country. The measure is applicable until December 31, 2026.

• January 11

- The European Commission approves a state aid scheme notified by Romania in the amount of 126 million euros to support investments in ports facing an increase in trade flows as a result of the war started by Russia against Ukraine.

• January 18

- The bonds issued by the Cluj County Council debut on the Bucharest Stock Exchange. The bond issue took place within a private placement, concluded in December 2023. The amount attracted from investors was 76 million euros.

• January 30

- There is a cyber attack that managed to break the databases of the Chamber of Deputies and copy 316 files, some containing personal data of the parliamentarians, including contracts or medical records.

• January 31st

- The Government approves an emergency ordinance by which it decides to extend the capping of the commercial addition to 14 basic foods, a measure established for 90 days by GEO 67/2023 and then extended for another 90 days at the end of October last year.

• February 1st

- The Government adopts a memorandum authorizing the Ministry of Finance to contract legal assistance services in order to ensure the representation of our country in the case pending before the Francophone Court of First Instance in Brussels, in which the company Pfizer - BioNTech sued Romania for the payment of all vaccines anti-Covid purchased as part of the European Union supply contract, signed in 2021. In this file, Pfizer asks the Bucharest government to pay 564 million euros for the 28.94 million vaccines ordered.

• 16th February

- The government decides to grant restructuring state aid in the form of a grant to the Oltenia Energetic Complex Company SA to finance the purchase of greenhouse gas emission certificates in 2024, in the amount of 386.63 million lei.

• March 1st

- Fitch rating agency reconfirms Romania's government debt rating at BBB-/F3 for long- and short-term foreign currency debt, as well as the stable outlook.

• 8 March

- The international arbitration court attached to the World Bank (International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes - ICSID) decides to reject the action initiated by the Gabriel Resources company in the Roşia Montană file, implicitly rejecting the requested compensation of over six billion dollars and obliging the respective company to reimburse Romania the court costs related to the arbitration procedure.

• March 20

- European Commission officials, who came to Bucharest, present the annual progress report of our country regarding the implementation of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, declaring that, if the PSD-PNL government does not make the reforms assumed in the PNRR, Romania's budget deficit will jump 7% of GDP at the end of 2024.

• March 25

- The European Commission shows in a report that, despite some improvements, Romania still faces the vulnerability of fiscal revenues, and the large budget deficits and the high inflation rate, which are all above pre-pandemic levels, make the national economy potentially vulnerable to shocks.

• 31st of March

- Romania and Bulgaria enter the Schengen space with the air and sea borders, for the free movement of goods and people.

• April 11

- The executive approves the National Financial Education Strategy 2024-2030.

• April 16

- President Klaus Iohannis approves the criminal prosecution requests against Petre Roman, as former prime minister, and Gelu-Voican Voiculescu, as former deputy prime minister, for their involvement in the June 13-15, 1990 mining raid .

- The International Monetary Fund (IMF) revises down the estimates regarding the growth of the Romanian economy this year, from 3.8% as predicted in October, to 2.8%.

• April 26

- DNA prosecutors announce that they have ordered the initiation of criminal proceedings and the detention for 24 hours of the defendant Cătălin-Liviu Stănculescu, the head of the Energy Department of the Oltenia Energy Complex, for committing the crime of continuous influence peddling.

• May 13

- The Board of Directors of the National Bank of Romania decides the following: maintaining the monetary policy interest rate at the level of 7% per year; maintaining the interest rate for the credit facility (Lombard) at 8% per year and the interest rate for the deposit facility at 6% percent per year; maintaining the mandatory minimum reserve rates for liabilities in lei and in foreign currency of credit institutions.

• May 15

- The European Commission slightly improves, to 3.3%, the estimate regarding the growth of the Romanian economy this year, thanks to the acceleration of private consumption and higher incomes, but warns that the government deficit will rise to 6.9% of GDP in 2024 and to 7% of GDP in 2025 due to increased spending.

• May 17

- The cyber security company Fort (4RT), part of the Bittnet Group, debuts on the AeRO market, following a capital increase and a private placement through which it attracted 1.67 million lei.

• May 23

- Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu announces that, from July 1, 2024, the minimum gross salary in payment will be increased from 3,300 lei per month, as it is currently, to 3,700 lei per month, which represents an increase of 12.12%.

• May 24

- The National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) announces the start of the criminal investigation on behalf of the former SRI generals Florian Coldea and Dumitru Dumbravă, and of the lawyer Doru Trăilă, who allegedly promised the businessman Cătălin Hideg that they would influence the magistrates to change his criminal sentence pronounced by the substantive court.

• May 28

- Premier Energy, a company from the energy industry, debuts on the Main Market of BVB, following an initial public offering that attracted 695 million lei - the largest IPO of a private company in the last five years.

- Fuel distributor JT Grup Oil's offer begins, through which the company intends to sell a maximum of ten million new shares, at a price of 6.5 lei per share.

• June 3

- The BNR announces that, on May 31, 2024, the foreign exchange reserves at the National Bank of Romania stood at 65,072 million euros, compared to 62,511 million euros on April 30, 2024. The level of the gold reserve remained at 103.6 tons. Under the conditions of international price developments, its value was 7,197 million euros. Romania's international reserves (currency plus gold) on May 31, 2024 were 72,269 million euros, compared to 69,700 million euros on April 30, 2024.

• June 9

- There are European parliamentary and local elections.

• June 11

- JT Grup Oil successfully completes the initial public offering on the AeRo market of BVB, attracting 20 million lei from investors.

• June 13

- The government positively corrects the budget of the Ministry of Finance, with almost 3 billion lei.

- The executive approves a memorandum regarding the negotiation of a loan agreement with the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development. According to the memorandum, the loan will be used to finance the state budget deficit and refinance the governmental public debt.

- The BNR announces that, in the period January-April 2024, the current account of the balance of payments recorded a deficit of 6,576 million euros, compared to 5,191 million euros in the period January-April 2023.

• June 19

- The European Commission warns that the Bucharest Government has failed to put a brake on budget spending and expects that at the end of 2024 we will record a deficit of 7% of GDP.

• June 20

- President Klaus Iohannis and CSAT members decide to transfer a Patriot system to Ukraine.

• June 28

- The BET-XT index, of the 30 most liquid securities from the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB), rose by 17.5% in the first half of the year, and including dividends, the yield of the extended index rose to 23.5 %, a fact reflected by the evolution of the BET-XT-TR index. - The BET-BK index, the yield benchmark of investment funds in shares, increased by 17.4% in the first six months.

- The BET index, of the 20 most liquid securities from the BVB, rose by 18.7%, and including dividends, the yield rose to 25.2%.

- The titles Digi Communications and Sphera Franchise Groupe had returns of over 50% in the first six months, almost only from the appreciation of the stock market, being followed in the top three increases in BET by the shares of MedLife, with an increase of 49.7%.

- Banca Transilvania shares had a total return of 37.8% in the first six months, and BRD securities - of 28.3%.

- The BET-NG index, of energy and utility companies, appreciated by 15.8%; OMV Petrom shares had a return of 40.3%, Transelectrica shares - 40.1%, and Electrica shares - 36.6%.

- The BET-FI index, of the former SIFs plus Fondul Proprietatea, decreased by 0.9%, being the only share basket from BVB that depreciated in the first semester.