Foreign direct investments to Romania totaled EUR 1.43 billion in the first five months of the year, down 31.5 percent on the same period of last year, according to data recently released by the Romanian Central Bank (BNR). There was a volume of FDI of EUR 300 million in May this year.

Black Sea Global Services (BSGS), the real estate investment fund set up by Romanian investor Dinu

Razvan Sin is the new head of the retail department with DTZ Echinox, the firm has announced. He will replace Aura Voiculescu, who has stepped down to pursue a business school abroad. Razvan Sin has joined the real estate consultancy firm in 2007.

Local IT distribution company Asesoft Distribution saw its revenues up 33 percent in the first half of this year, to USD 67.8 million, it has announced. Its target for the year is a turnover of USD 180 million. This would be an overall increase of over 30 percent in turnover compared to last year.

A Rolls-Royce Phantom Coupe was registered in Romania in June this year, the first such car after one and a half years, according to Mediafax newswire. The car is priced at EUR 340,000 in Europe, but it was not bought through Automobile Bavaria, the car brand representative in Romania, according to the newswire.

Romanian media, Horia Ciorcila charged with Stock Exchange manipulation – in Ziarul Financiar, Annual inflation down to 4.38% in June – in Ziarul Financiar, Vladescu: We need progressive taxation, flat tax is no longer coping – in Ziarul Financiar, Impact goes insolvent over a debt equivalent to three apartments' worth – in Ziarul Financiar, Government comes up with third plan to reboot economy – in Ziarul Financiar

Local real estate developer Impact has entered insolvency after one of its contractors, Romconstruct Ploiesti, has asked for its insolvency in court over a debt of RON 1.3 million (around EUR 300,000). The real estate developer says it will appeal the court decision and qualifies the proceedings as unjustified and hostile.

Personal travel planner Anca Nichifor writes about places she has taken tourists to: Biertan, Copsa Mare, Dobrogea vineyards, Dobrogea caves and Esmahan Sultan mosque. "My job allows me to spend quite some time traveling across Romania and despite this, it has been hard for me to see Romania through the eyes of the tourist."

When I first moved to Romania for my work in 1993, the youngest of our two sons was less than one year old. In those days there was no good quality fresh milk in the shops and the import of long life milk was irregular. This problem was solved in the person of Salomnia, an old lady who did some cleaning at one of our neighbors.

The head of Banca Transilvania's administration council, Horia Ciorcila and the head of Bank of Cyprus Romania, Georgios Christofourou have been summoned to trial on alleged stock market manipulation and money laundering in the Bank of Cyprus acquisition of a share package in Banca Transilvania earlier this year.

Mahmoud Abbas, president of the National Palestinian Authority, is visiting Romania today and tomorrow (July 12, 13), invited by the Romanian president Traian Basescu. Abbas will meet the Romanian president, as well as the prime minister Emil Boc and the head of the Chamber of Deputies, Roberta Anastase.

Around 2.7 million Romanian citizens are currently staying in other European Union member states, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in its most recent migration report. Their remittances reached USD 9.4 billion in 2008, the highest level so far, but went down rapidly in 2009