Quarter 2 in figures

• April 9

- The plenary session of the Chamber of Deputies votes, as a decision-making body, on the draft law on gambling, by which the "casualties" are removed from localities with less than 15,000 inhabitants.

• 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 23

- The government adopts an emergency ordinance by which it launches a new stage of the Electric Up financing program, for the installation of photovoltaic panels and the purchase of electric charging stations.

• 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 7

- President Klaus Iohannis begins a working visit to the USA, ending on May 9. At the end of the meeting, from the statements of President Iohannis it emerged that he did not receive the support of the American leader Joe Biden for the post of Secretary General of NATO.

• 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.

- The Ministry of Finance is launching a new issue of Tezaur government bonds, with maturities of 1 and 3 years, with annual interest rates of 6% and 6.85%, respectively.

• May 15

- The European Commission slightly improves, to 3.3%, the estimates 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 20

- Marcel Ciolacu pays a visit to Ankara, and Turkish President Recep Tayip Erdogan decides that Romanians can travel to his country only with an identity card.

• May 23

- The government approves an emergency ordinance establishing a 10% salary increase, in two installments, for several categories of employees in the administration.

- 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 BVB Main Market, 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 index, of the 20 most liquid securities from the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB), rose by 7.2% in the second quarter of the year, up to 18,245 points, while the BET-TR index, which also reflects the dividends granted by companies, it increased by 12.5%.

- The BET-BK index, the yield benchmark of investment funds in shares, appreciated by 8.8%.

- The extended BET-XT index, which captures the evolution of the 30 most liquid shares of our market, rose by almost 7.1% in the second quarter, and including dividends the increase was about 12%, reflected by the evolution of the index BET-XT-TR.

- Shares of the private medical services provider MedLife had an appreciation of 54.01% in the second quarter, registering the best evolution in BET and the second in BET-XT, after Antibiotice.

- Digi Communications shares rose 34% in the second quarter.

- Banca Transilvania shares rose by 14.9%, while BRD shares fell by 3.7%.

- OMV Petrom shares increased by 13.6% in the second quarter.

- Hidroelectrica shares fell by 6.9%, those of Nuclearelectrica - by 7.3%.

- Transgaz shares appreciated by 22% in the second quarter.

- The BET-NG index, of energy and utility companies, had an advance of 5.8% in the April-June 2024 period.

- The BET-FI index, of the former SIFs plus Fondul Proprietatea, dropped by 3.3%, to 58,767 points, following the 24% drop in the price of FP shares, which also includes the ex-dividend correction.