Romanian retail sales are expected to go back to the 2007 level, after decreasing by as much as 10.4 percent in 2009, according to a recent report by advisory firm Candole. The biggest decline was in June last year, when retail sales dropped by 16.4 percent. This came after two years of economic boom, 2007 and 2008, when retail sales grew by 20 percent year-on-year.

Zdob si Zdub, a band coming from the Republic of Moldova, is preparing a new album, which will be launched around Christmas this year and which will be recorded in two versions, one for Europe and one for Romania. The album will feature songs mainly in English, with only three in Romanian.

Asus Romania has delayed the official launch of the new NX90 notebook, which was scheduled for September, after the model was stolen mid-August from the hotel where the laptop was exhibited, the company has announced. The prototype, which has not entered the series production yet, was one of the few prototypes of this model available in Romania. The company is now awaiting to receive a new prototype from Taiwan.

The EUR 6.2 million jackpot in the Romanian 6/49 lottery game has been won on Sunday, after nobody had managed to guess the lucky numbers for the last six months. The six lucky numbers were 28, 21, 12, 7 23 and 11. The winner bought the ticket from a Romanian Lottery agency in Iasi and paid RON 20.5 for it, according to the Romanian Lottery.

Romania's furniture exports, in first four months, totaled EUR 356 million, 7.3 percent higher than in the same period of the previous year, according to the National Institute of Statistics' data. The imports amounted to EUR 90.4 million, 12.1 percent lower compared to January-April 2009.

Company managers expect to fire more staff between August and October while increasing prices on all activity segments, according to a survey by the National Statistics Institute in Romania. Managers in the manufacturing industry expect a stable production level in the following three months. They also expect a drop of 16 percent in the number of employees in the manufacturing industry.

Banca Romaneasca, owned by the National Bank of Greece posted a EUR 2 million profit in the second quarter of the year, which was less than half of the profit in the same period of last year. The bank posted EUR 12 million in profit in the first quarter of this year.

More than 125,000 tourists have spent their weekend in resorts on the Romanian Black Sea shore, but hotel operators expect their numbers to swell by a few more thousand. According to data from the "Litoral-Delta Dunarii" Association, on Friday night 126,525 tourists were officially registered with accommodation units in resorts on the Black Sea coast. The real figure should be higher, as these statistics do not consider people lodged in private homes or camps.

Romania and Hungary are the only Eastern European real estate markets unattractive to investors, because of overvalued assets, while the lack of transactions means property prices need to continue to drop, says a global study by real estate adviser DTZ.

Budgetary revenues up 7.5% in July in the wake of VAT hike announcement – in Ziarul Financiar, Rising borrowing costs eat into Banca Românească's profit – in Ziarul Financiar, Amazon competes with Continental and Bitdefender for software developers in Iaşi – in Ziarul Financiar, Intesa lost EUR 3 million in the first quarter – in Ziarul Financiar, Volksbank's assets drop nu 1.9% in second quarter, to EUR 5.2 million – in Ziarul Financiar, Malev drops flight capacity by 7% in Romania – in Ziarul Financiar

Calendar of events for the period August 30 - September 2

The CET Govora thermal power plant will receive EUR 57 million for retooling through the Sectoral Operational Programme (SOP) for Environment. The money will go to electrostatic rehabilitation, desulphurisation equipments and compliance with environmental standards. All the paperwork for this project will be sent to Brussels by October 1, manager of CET Govora Mihai Balan said.