November 13 (SeeNews) - Following are some of the main stories in the online versions of Romanian media on Friday morning. SeeNews has not verified these reports and cannot vouch for their accuracy.
ZIARUL FINANCIAR
- Romania’s Millennium Bank, part of Portuguese bank Millennium BCP, reported a net loss of 26.7 million euro for the first nine months of 2009, 22.5% wider on the year.
- Deputy governor of Romania's central bank, Cristian Popa, expects Romania's economy to grow by 0.5%-1.5% next year. He sees the current account deficit narrowing to 4.6% of gross domestic product in 2009, from 12.3% of GDP last year, but widening to 4.8% in 2010.
- Marinopoulos Coffee Company, which operates the Starbucks coffee shop chain in Romania, has decided to close one of its four outlets in the capital Bucharest due to the effects of the economic crisis.
MEDIAFAX
- The Romanian leasing market is expected to fall by 74% to 1.25 billion euro this year, due to the economic and financial crisis, financial companies association ALB Romania said. Vehicle leasing is seen down by 76% this year to 775.4 million euro.
- The European Investment Bank estimates it will extend 1.5 billion euro in loans in Romania next year for energy projects and the sector of the small and medium-sized companies, the bank's vice-president Matthias Kollatz-Ahnen said.
BUSINESS STANDARD
- Romania will assign around 20% of the total budget expenses, equal to 7.0% of gross domestic product, for public investments in 2010, interim Finance Minister Gheorghe Pogea said. He added that at the moment there are no plans to raise the flat 16% income and profit tax and the 19% value-added tax.
- Nine-month volume sales of Holcim Romania, a unit of Swiss cement producer Holcim, fell 14.7% on the year.
AGERPRES
- Romania’s newest bank Banca Comerciala Feroviara, expected to open its first branch later this month, expects losses of around 2.0 million lei this year. It plans to turn to profit in its third year of operations, the bank’s director general, Petre Tulin, said.
- The number of AH1/N1 flu cases in Romania has reached 1,146, the Health Ministry said.
(1 euro = 4.299 Romanian lei)