The National Bank of Romania decided to increase the key interest rate from Wednesday to 3% from 2.5% per year, as well as the interest rates on loans or deposits with the National Bank made by commercial banks. The move has been expected by most economists. The key interest rate or the monetary policy interest rate determines the evolution of all banking interest rates and represents the main instrument available to the National Bank to fight inflation. The central bank forecasts that the inflation rate will go up more than expected in February, owing to the rising cost of fuels and processed food, the war in Ukraine and international sanctions against Russia.
The Romanian authorities have declared ten Russian diplomats in Bucharest personae non gratae, saying their activity runs counter to the provisions of the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. Romanian foreign minister Bogdan Aurescu summoned the Russian ambassador to Bucharest Valery Kuzmin on Tuesday, informing him of this decision and reiterating his firm condemnation of the crimes committed in Bucha and other places in Ukraine and for which Russia is responsible. Following revelations in recent days of the massacre committed by the Russian army in Bucha, many EU and NATO states, including France, Germany and Denmark, have expelled dozens of Russian diplomats, with Lithuania even expelling the Russian ambassador in Vilnius.
NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg said on Tuesday that the war in Ukraine has reached a crucial phase. He told a press conference that Russia would try to take control of the entire Donbas, a pro-Moscow break-away region in eastern Ukraine, and create a land bridge with Crimea, a Ukrainian peninsula which Russia occupied in 2014. Stoltenberg estimated that the regrouping and repositioning of the Russian forces from northern Ukraine, where they abandoned attempts to take over the capital Kyiv, will take a few weeks, before they launch a major offensive in the east. He stressed that in that window, it is extremely important that NATO allies provide support to the Ukrainian military. NATO foreign ministers on Wednesday and Thursday are set to discuss with their Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba ways to provide weapons, ammunition and medical supplies to Ukraine, Stoltenberg also said.
The Republic of Moldova is Ukraine’s most vulnerable neighbour, taking in more refugees fleeing Ukraine per head than any other country, said Romania’s foreign minister Bogdan Aurescu in Berlin on Tuesday. He co-hosted, together with his German and French counterparts Annalena Baerbock and Jean-Yves Le Drian an international donor conference for Moldova. Earlier, the country’s pro-western president Maia Sandu said Moldova fully complies with international sanctions against Russia and that its only vulnerable aspect in relation with Moscow is the purchase of natural gas. According to a census from 2014, the Republic of Moldova has a majority Romanian-speaking population, with 80% of its citizens identifying as Romanian or Moldovan, while 6.5% are ethnic Ukrainians and 4% ethnic Russians.
RRI, 5 aprilie
