Still a ‘draft’, the Government’s anti-crisis agenda counts several strategies.

Mr Boc said that the investment fund for boosting economy would be different from the state budget.

He mentioned other measures as well: Companies would first have to pay the principal of an overdue debt to the state, and they would receive some VAT compensation:

‘We will allow payment of the principal to be made first, instead of the interest rates and penalties, when repaying debt to the fiscal authorities.’

The national investment fund would have to include minority stakes owned by the state in various companies.

The journalists analyzed the budgets of the companies under the Departments of Economy and Transport.

Employees of at least 15 such companies have a monthly gross salary of over € 715, whereas the medium wage has reached only € 442 in Romania.

The best – paid jobs are at the Air Traffic Navigation Services Agency, where the medium gross wage is approximately € 3,100.

At the same time, private companies have been forced by the economic crisis to reduce all costs.

Accordingly, salaries have been frozen or diminished, and many people lost their jobs.

The National Labor Force Agency announced at the end of October 2009 a number of 653,939 unemployed Romanians.

Annording to NewsIn, liquidity amounted to lei 26.08 M (over €6 M) at day-end, 30% higher compared to the previous session.

BET index, which includes the ten best companies on BSE, rose 4.72% to 4,582.79, while BET-C, which takes into account all listed shares minus financial companies, soared 4.33% to 2,792.74.

During the first 11 months, 138.000 new cars were sold, in comparison with 308,000 last year, including commercial vehicles. If only cars are taken into consideration, sales amounted to about 258,000 units in the first 11 months, against 128,000 in the same 2008 period. The commercial vehicles segment dropped even more, by 68%, from 47,000 to 15,000 units. The drop in buses has been even higher – minus 75%, from approximately 4,100 units to around 1,000.

Last month, the local branded car sales dropped 39% against the similar month in 2008, from 4,200 to 2,500. When it comes to foreign brands, car sales dropped 29%, from 10,200 to 7,200. Opel and Skoda sales dropped the most in the first 11 months of the year, by over 60%. Kia cee’d sold best, followed by Renault Clio, Ford Focus and Hyundai i10.

According to the document, the 2010 budget will be composed on total revenues of 166.709 billion lei – 31.75% of GDP and spending of 197.904 billion lei (37.68% of GDP with a budgetary deficit of 5.9%. According to the author of the document, Gheorghe Gherghina, the budget is constructed on an estimated GDP which is 1.3% higher than last year’s GDP.

‘People with high fever in the 37.5-38 degrees Celsius, alerted state and nasal discharge should isolate themselves at home and contact their family physicians,’ Streinu-Cercel told a news conference.He said the people stricken by virosis have to isolate themselves at home and get in touch with their family physicians to see what is to be done.

The call by the state secretary with the Health Ministry is aimed at containing the circulation of the A/H1N1 flu virus as specialists have detected two flu carriers in the cities of Iasi and Bucharest and also severe forms of the new flu.Two people, a local case in Bucharest and an imported one in Cluj, are hospitalised in intensive care because of severe forms of A/H1N1 virus infections, said Starinu-Cercel, and they are in a critical state that requires artificial administration of oxygen and mechanical ventilation because the air filling their lungs is insufficient and their bodies suffocate.Streinu-Cercel warned that in very many instances the A1/H1N1 virus is associated with sub-clinical forms, in which cases the infected ones have no external signs of the illness but they are all the more dangerous because they transmit the virus unknowingly.

A vaccination campaign is scheduled to start in Romania on December 1.There are 441 confirmed A/H1N1 flu cases in Romania.The Health Ministry official also said the new flu could strike at most 30 percent of Romania’s active population and the mortality rate could reach 2.5 percent.

The country’s economic situation is under control, but there is no room for hesitation, less so for errors on a financial level. It is not only the 2010 budget building that makes the premier’s direct involvement necessary.

There will be tough negotiations with the World Bank, the IMF, in which the premier’s involvement is necessary. Possible financial slippages cannot be made up for by the National Bank only’, Croitoru said.

IMF officials did not make any declarations, IMF Romania representative was too busy to respond, his spokesperson declared. According to PSD leader Mircea Geoana IMF delegation will arrive in Bucharest together with World Bank representatives. However, the European Commission officials will not join the team.

President Basescu declared that he will attempt to convince the IMF to come to Romania. Thus, he said on Wednesday that he was the obligation to convince international institutions to continue the financing process for Romania even if Romania has an interim government.

Even we are undergoing an economic crisis Romania is not the country we knew five or ten years ago that cannot overcome such difficult economic moments, Basescu said. He added that the country has the same resources it had in 2007 due to the economic crisis.

We loan money because we do not want to affect the reserve of the National Bank, which amounts to about 26 to 27 billion euro.

The Economy Ministry, based on the previous assent issued by the National Energy Regulatory Authority, approved Transelectrica’s prospect plan over 2008-2017.

The net domestic electricity consumption, the grid losses included, will grow from 54.27 TWh in 2008 to 64.10 TWh in 2012 and to 74.05 TWh in 2017, the plan says.The net peak power of the domestic consumption will increase from 8.501 MW in 2008 to 12.065 MW in 2017.The losses in the electricity grids will grow from 5.8 TWh, in 2008, to 6.7 TWh in 2012 and to 7.8 TWh, in 2017.

The net electricity production is also expected to grow from 56.46 TWh in 2008 to 67.10 TWh in 2012 and to 77.05, in 2017. The average annual growth pace of the GDP and the final electricity consumption is expected to stand at 5.7 percent and 3.2 percent respectively, over 2008 – 2017.

The report sent to the BVB investors in Bucharest, Brasov, Cluj, Timisoara, Constanta, Tulcea, had in view the accentuated growth in the electricity consumption, above the growth pace, nationwide. In Bucharest, the growth pace scores a rate much higher than the average figures throughout Romania.

Thus the electricity consumption increased by 8 percent in 2006 compared to 2005, by 18 percent in 2007 than in 2006, and ENEL Muntenia Sud Electricity Distributor expects a rise by 87 percent in 2012, and of 115 percent in 2017, compared to 2006.The electricity consumption in the Constanta-Black Sea coast area is expected to go up by 52 percent in 2012 and by 85 percent in 2017, compared to 2006.

Transelectrica will continue the investment programme approved by the National Energy Regulator ANRE for 2008-2012. A possible increase in the investment programmes will be considered only based on the feasibility surveys and their approval by ANRE, the above mentioned source says.