Bulgaria has the EU's lowest labour cost, while Romania still lags well behind Poland and Hungary.
The annual increase of the stock of bank loans in Romania has eased gradually from 6.4% y/y in December to 5.7% y/y in January and 4.9% y/y in February.
Romania has been catching up with the EU average faster than Hungary, which fell into recession in 2023.
Water is not only the basis of life for animals and plants but is also likely to become a contested resource in parts of the world in the coming decades, reports Statista.
National Bank of Moldova said decision aims “to slow down the decrease in inflation”.
Central bank also widens spread in overnight lending channel. Authority has been pushing local banks to borrow from the funding facility.
Slump was deepest for residential construction segment.
Eurostat data shows fall in populations of biggest urban areas in Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania in last five years.
Aside from agriculture, most key sectors are still shrinking and the war in neighbouring Ukraine has delayed structural reforms.
It's predicted that 3bn people will live in zones that have been made uninhabitable (black areas) by 2070, say scientists.
Romania's high fiscal deficit is expected to put pressure on the public debt-to-GDP ratio, eventually pushing it above 50%.
February's fall in inflation was smaller than expected, increasing uncertainty about future rate cuts.
Domestic inflation decelerated to an annual rate of 3% in February, as pressures from food and energy prices decreased.
Inflation has been in the lower half of the 5%+/-1pp target band for three months.
Romania’s economy advanced by 1.1% y/y in the last quarter of 2023 and by 2.1% y/y in the full year.
The decision to maintain the reference interest rate was primarily influenced by the global economic landscape, characterised by declining but still elevated inflationary pressures.
Bulgaria took a strong pro-Western turn after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Private consumption is expected to be a major growth driver in Romania this year and the January figures are fully consistent with this.
Central bank watching for lagged effects of rate hikes that have taken benchmark to 45%.
The Romanian manufacturing sector faces new shocks from supply chain bottlenecks and higher taxes affecting activity, in the context of already broad-based weakness in demand.