Romania's finance minister Florin Citu thanked Swedish furniture retailer IKEA for returning the RON 0.86 million (EUR 175,000) received as subsidies during the state of emergency and assured that the money would be used for helping those in need.

"I've just finished a video conference with Mrs. Sara Del Fabbro, CEO of IKEA Southeast Europe and Mrs. Violeta Nenita, Market Manager of IKEA Romania. They informed me of the company's decision not to use the RON 858,504 [earmarked from the state budget] to pay technical unemployment for March 17 - June 12," Florin Citu announced in a Facebook post, quoted by News.ro.

Swedish retailer IKEA decided to return the subsidies received during the lockdown in Romania and eight other countries.

IKEA was the first big retailer in Romania to close down physical shops for sanitary reasons - but developed alternative online sales instruments.

The company says returning the money is the "right thing to do" given the pent-up demand it has experienced since reopening its stores.

"Now we know more than what we did in February and March. It's just the right thing to go back and say: 'hey guys thanks very much, you helped us through this difficult period and so now can we see about paying this back or forward'," Tolga Oncu, retail operations manager at Ingka Group, told the Financial Times.

(Photo courtesy of the company)

editor@romania-insider.com