ESPIONAGE – Prosecutors with the Directorate Investigating Organised Crime and Terrorism Offences (DIICOT) have indicted 4 Romanian and foreign nationals as part of an espionage inquiry targeting the Serbian company NIS Petrol, a subsidiary of the Russian energy giant Gazprom. Prosecutors have ordered searches in Bucharest and Timișoara, both at the company headquarters, and at the homes of a number of employees, confiscating documents and data storage devices. The four are accused of having traded classified information and of facilitating the unauthorised transfer of data concerning Romania’s mineral reserves, prosecutors say. In 2009, Gazprom bought the majority stake in NIS under an agreement signed by Belgrade and Moscow.
ECONOMY – Romania’s economy is expected to grow by 4.6% this year, the World Bank announced on Tuesday. The estimate is better than the one made public in June, when the figure only stood at 2.9%. The improvement is based on robust private consumption and early signs that investments would pick up, but the outlook depends on the developments in Ukraine and their impact on the European economy on the whole, the institution says.
