European Union council president, Donald Tusk, called on the authorities in Poland to respect the constitution as a standoff between the opposition and the ruling party continued.  Polish opposition leaders called for days of anti-government protests and pledged to keep blocking parliament’s main hall after being accused of trying to seize power illegally by a government they say has violated the constitution.   Several thousand people protested in Warsaw and other cities after police broke up a blockade of the parliament building in Warsaw in the early hours.   “Following yesterday’s events in parliament and on the streets of Warsaw … I appeal to those who have real power for respect and consideration of the people, constitutional principles and morals,” Tusk told a news conference in Poland’s western city of Wrocław....Protesters had blocked all exits from the parliament on Friday after the opposition said PiS politicians illegally passed the budget for next year by moving the vote outside of the main chamber of parliament.  The protest marked the biggest political standoff in years in EU member Poland and the sharpest escalation of the conflict between the opposition and the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party since it came to power in October 2015.  The police attempted in the early hours of Saturday to remove protesters by grabbing them and pulling them aside, but stopped as new protesters arrived at the scene. The police also called on protesters blocking the parliament to disperse, saying on loudspeakers that they might otherwise use force

At least nine people have been killed and many more injured, according to German police, after a truck ploughed into a Christmas market in Berlin in what is believed to have been a deliberate attack. A vehicle, a large black Scania articulated lorry, ran into the market outside the landmark Kaiser Wilhelm memorial church on Monday evening. German police said one person was found dead in the lorry, having died of injuries sustained in the crash, while a suspect was arrested about 100 metres away from the scene in the Tiergarten.  A witness told the Guardian that the truck ploughed into the market at speed. “It was not an accident. The truck was going 40mph. It was in the middle of a square, there are main roads either side, [where it could have come from]. But it showed no sign of slowing down,” said Emma Rushton.  She said it crashed into a stall only a few feet from where she and her friend were standing. “We heard a massive bang. About eight to 10 feet in front of us was where the lorry ploughed through. It ploughed through the stall where we bought our mulled wine.

“It ploughed through people and the wooden huts, it tore the lights down. Everything went dark, it was black and there was screaming. It was awful,” she said.

Banca italiană "Monte dei Paschi di Siena" va scoate la vânzare noi acţiuni în perioada 19-22 decembrie, într-o ultimă încercare de a-şi majora capitalul în acest an cu 5 miliarde de euro şi a evita în acest fel solicitarea unui ajutor din partea statului, transmite Reuters. "Monte dei Paschi" a anunţat că oferta adresată investitorilor instituţionali, care reprezintă 65% din total, se va încheia joi. Oferta rezervată acţionarilor actuali şi persoanelor fizice va avea loc până miercuri.  În încercarea de a atrage fonduri, "Monte dei Paschi" a prelungit o ofertă de schimb voluntar de obligaţiuni cu acţiuni, adresată investitorilor care deţin obligaţiuni junior ale băncii în valoare de 2,1 miliarde de euro. Oferta are loc în intervalul 16-21 decembrie. Guvernul italian este pregătit să susţină a treia mare bancă din ţară, dacă planul de atragere de fonduri nu va funcţiona. Potrivit noilor reglementări adoptate de Uniunea Europeană după criza financiară, investitorii într-o bancă cu probleme trebuie să suporte primii pierderile, înainte ca guvernul să intervină cu fonduri publice. O sursă apropiată situaţiei a declarat vineri că salvarea de către stat a "Monte dei Paschi" implică mai întâi conversia obligatorie în acţiuni a unor obligaţiuni subordonate în valoare de 4,1 miliarde de euro. 

The US Federal Reserve has raised interest rates for only the second time in a decade.
Janet Yellen, the chairman of the Fed, described the move as “a reflection of the confidence we have in the progress that the economy has made and our judgment that progress will continue”.  But with “considerable uncertainty” surrounding the economic outlook, how is Donald Trump’s election as US president likely to shape the path of interest rates?   After the financial crisis, the Fed slashed rates close to zero in a bid to support economic activity and prevent a bigger rise in unemployment.
It kept them there until December 2015, when it raised its target range to between 0.25pc and 0.5pc.

Back then, policymakers signalled that four more interest rate rises were on the way if world events turned out as they predicted.  They didn't.  At the start of 2016, stock markets were rocked by fears over the Chinese economy, and policymakers opted to keep rates unchanged, noting that they were "closely monitoring global economic and financial developments".  The Brexit vote in June also caused concern among policymakers.  Even before the vote, policymakers noted that "the upcoming British referendum on membership in the European Union could generate financial market turbulence that could adversely affect domestic economic performance." While the Fed's mandate states that policymakers must "promote effectively the goals of maximum employment, stable prices and moderate long-term interest rates" in the US, global events matter.  The US presidential election also gave policymakers reasons for pause.  At the start of last month, they judged that "the case for an increase in the federal funds rate [ie. interest rates] has continued to strengthen but [we] decided, for the time being, to wait for some further evidence of continued progress toward its objectives."  While the UK voted for Brexit and the US voted for Donald Trump, the market reaction has been relatively calm.Investors are now expecting a mini-economic boom in the US and have pulled cash out of bonds and emerging markets and into US equities. Following last night's announcement, yields on two year Treasury bonds climbed to a seven-year high on expectations of faster rate hikes.
Implied borrowing costs across Europe also ticked higher, with UK benchmark 10-year gilt yields

In the future, Romania may not receive funding from international organizations such as the IMF or the EU.  "There are no guarantees that the IMF, EU or other supra-national or international organizations will make available to Romania similar financing programs in the future. Both the current account and the budget deficit are rising. If these deficits are going to require the availability of future financing, Romania may pass additional measures that could hinder economic growth". NBR officials declined to comment on the statements included in the MedLife IPO prospectus. Last month, Lucian Croitoru, advisor to NBR governor Mugur Isărescu, warned that Romania was closer than one may think "either to an adjustment towards its potential, or towards recession", if the adjustments aren't made on time.  He wrote, on the NBR blog, that the monetary policy is more relaxes than intended, and the "relaxed fiscal policy has generated a fiscal impulse which stimulated the economy more than would have been implied by the negative amount of the GDP gap". This process whereby the VAT cuts and salary increases stimulate other countries' economies cannot last, and the inflation driven exclusively by demand will increase,  Mr. Croitoru said. He added: "In that context, the measures from 2016, to cut VAT by 4 percentage points together with the significant increase of wage expenditures, are not sustainable. They are putting pressures on the current account deficit and on inflation".  This year, NBR governor Mugur Isărescu has warned on several occasions against the fiscal relaxation measures passed together with salary increases in an electoral year. 

Raiffeisen Bank has snuck a gloomy prediction for the Romanian economy in the prospectus of the MedLife IPO, which it intermediates. "Most analysts claim that Romania needs a new stand-by agreement with the IMF", the MedLife prospectus , published yesterday in order to inform the investors interested in the Romanian stock market and in the MedLife shares in particular. The announcement is mind-boggling, especially as politicians and government members assure us that we are going to have economic growth, higher wages and lower taxes. Furthermore, prime-minister Dacian Cioloş has publicly announced that he would challenge all populist laws with the Constitutional Court. "Raiffeisen Bank" has dropped the aforementioned "bomb" in the Medlife IPO, five days ahead of the parliamentary elections. Except it hasn't taken responsibility for it directly, instead alleging this idea is the result of consensus from "most analysts", without naming them. It is not out of the question that "Raiffeisen Bank" just wanted to make noise and draw attention from investors, as the Romanian stock market has failed to become attractive, despite the projects for expansion conducted by the Bucharest Stock Exchange (the Project to remove the barriers to the entry on the stock market) and by the Financial Oversight Authority (the STEAM project, which has as its goal the move up to the emerging market status) and having brought in Pole Ludwik Sobolewski as CEO. Despite all these efforts, the BSE daily turnover only occasionally passes 7 million Euros a day. "Raiffeisen Bank" has stood out lately, precisely by the fact that it has threatened the Romanian government with a lawsuit in the International Court of Arbitrage, as well as following the ruling of the Supreme Council of Magistrates (CSM), which accused the bank of trying to intervene in the ruling rendering process in relation to the laws concerning the banking sector. The bank later changed its tune and sponsored an event of the Romanian government, which was attended by German finance minister Wolfgang Schauble.

Reuters writes that the 2 billion Euros "investment" needs to be approved by the European Commission, which needs to check whether the transaction occurs at the market price or if it represents a state aid. Shortly after, a report appeared in Italian daily La Stampa, where it is state that the authorities in Rome have asked for a 15 billion Euros financial aid from the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) to prop up Italy's banking system. Shares of Italian banks rose significantly following the news, with Monte dei Paschi, being the best "performer", with a rise of about 10%. "No request for the ESM is being prepared", a spokesperson of the Italian treasury said, according to Financial Times.  With the resignation of the government led by Matteo Renzi, who has announced on his Twitter account that the budget law has been approved, Italy's "Aeneid" in the Eurozone enters a new stage and nobody knows when the country is going to turn that corner.  As for Greece's "Odyssey", Bloomberg asks whether the plan to cut the debt burden isn't too small and applied too late, reminding that the IMF sees the fiscal targets as unrealistic and the debt as far too big. Right now all we have to do is wait, even though we probably won't have to wait as many years as have passed since the aggravated phase of the sovereign debt in Europe, to find out whether Greece and Italy will "kick the bucket" once they "turn that corner". 

Russia’s Central Bank expects the crude glut on the global market to persist till 2017, according to the regulator’s report on monetary policy quoted by Tass. Oil price will decline to about $40 per barrel in 2016 and remain on this level in 2017-2019, the bank said. “The estimates of the supply and demand balance on the global crude market have not changed significantly, the surplus of oil supply is expected to persist till 2017. Taking this into account, the Bank of Russia has kept its base case forecast of Urals crude oil price by the end of 2016 at the level of $40 per barrel,” the report said.

A possible decision to freeze oil production by the exported countries will not have a significant effect on the demand/supply balance on the global oil market or oil price, the report said.  “The negotiations on freezing oil production among OPEC countries and some large exporters outside the organization are unlikely to have a lasting effect on market conditions. This would be possible only if the parties have agreed on direct reduction of production in comparison with current levels, but such an outcome is very unlikely. A more likely solution – setting production and exports at the levels close to the current ones – will not significantly affect the demand/supply balance on the global oil market,” the report said.  Earlier, Saudi Arabia and Russia’s energy ministers singed a joint statement aimed at stabilizing the crude market on the sidelines of the G20 Summit. The Ministers recognized the importance of maintaining the ongoing dialogue about current developments in oil and gas markets and indicated their mutual desire to further expand their bilateral relations in energy.  Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak told reporters that Russia and Saudi Arabia are going to discuss freezing oil production for 3 or 6 months, maybe more.  The 15th International Energy Forum (IEF15) will be held in Algiers on September 26-28, 2016. According to the media, oil exporter countries might discuss freezing of oil production. Venezuela, Ecuador and Kuwait were the initiators of the discussion.

OMV Petrom proposes its shareholders a dividend worth a minimum 30% for this year, says a release sent to Bucharest Stock Exchange. “OMV Petrom currently targets, subject to adverse developments in the external market, a proposed dividend from the 2016 net earnings of a minimum of 30% in the case it is fully covered by the Company’s free cash flows before dividends,” reads the release. ”The above should not be considered an amendment of the Company’s existing Dividend Policy, which will remain unchanged, but only a further detailing of the general principles with respect to 2016 only.” Starting the 2017 financial year and beyond, unless otherwise approved, the general principles under the Company’s existing Dividend Policy will remain unchanged and applicable, as follows: “OMV Petrom S.A. (the Company) is committed to deliver a competitive shareholder return through the business cycle, including paying an attractive dividend, subject always to maintaining a strong balance sheet that will enable the Company to finance its investment needs and to the shareholders’ approval.” OMV Petrom recorded a consolidated net profit of EUR 26 million in the second quarter of this year, down by 83% compared to the same period of 2015. The group’s consolidated sales declined by 20% in the three months ended June 31, 2016, to EUR 807 million.

 Once upon a time, there were five international audit, tax and audit consulting firms. Arthur Andersen disappeared in 2002, after it was convicted for the involvement in the Enron fraud.  Since then, there have been four giants on this market, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, Ernst & Young and KPMG, and some of their biggest clients are financial institutions. Bloomberg and Financial Times recently wrote that PricewaterhouseCoopers has been sued for "not having detected a case of fraud that led to the collapse of a bank during the global financial crisis". According to FT, the lawsuit in the United States "could bring more audit firms in the line of fire". The biggest lawsuit against an audit firm, according to Financial Times, has been brought following the complaint filed by the company that is in charge of the liquidation of Taylor, Bean & Whitaker (TBW), a mortgage originator in the US, which has been in a long-lasting relationship with Colonial Bank din Alabama. During the period of the real estate bubble in the United States, which has led to the subprime lending crisis, TBW used to grant mortgage loans, and they have already been financed by Colonial Bank.  According to the article in FT, the company that manages what is left of the TBW assets are accusing PwC of "failing to spot the conspiracy of several billion dollars between the founder of TBW and the executive management of Colonial Bank". The documents submitted to the court show that PwC signed "clean" audit opinions between 2002 and 2008, and in 2009 Colonial Bank collapsed and "rose" up to the 6th position in the chart of the biggest defaults in the US. The cost for the FDIC (author's note": Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the institution for the guarantee of bank deposits in the US) was 4.2 billion dollars, according to Bloomberg estimates.

A key gauge of credit vulnerability is now three times over the danger threshold and has continued to deteriorate, despite pledges by Chinese premier Li Keqiang to wean the economy off debt-driven growth before it is too late.  The Bank for International Settlements warned in its quarterly report that China’s "credit to GDP gap" has reached 30.1, the highest to date and in a different league altogether from any other major country tracked by the institution. It is also significantly higher than the scores in East Asia's speculative boom on 1997 or in the US subprime bubble before the Lehman crisis. Studies of earlier banking crises around the world over the last sixty years suggest that any score above ten requires careful monitoring.  The credit to GDP gap measures deviations from normal patterns within any one country and therefore strips out cultural differences.  It is based on work the US economist Hyman Minsky and has proved to be the best single gauge of banking risk, although the final denouement can often take longer than assumed. Indicators for what would happen to debt service costs if interest rates rose 250 basis points are also well over the safety line.  China’s total credit reached 255pc of GDP at the end of last year, a jump of 107 percentage points over eight years. This is an extremely high level for a developing economy and is still rising fast .

EU leaders will search for unity at a special summit without the UK on Friday, in the hope of setting a course for a union battered by the Brexit vote and riven by a simmering east-west row over migration.  Donald Tusk, the former Polish prime minister who chairs EU leaders’ summits, hopes to cool tempers after Luxembourg’s foreign minister called for Hungary to be thrown out of the EU for allegedly treating asylum seekers “worse than wild animals”. Hungary counterattacked with stinging criticism of the grand duchy’s record in helping big corporations avoid tax. On Thursday Tusk called on EU leaders to take a “brutally honest” look at the bloc’s problems, declaring: “We must not let this crisis go to waste.”  “We haven’t come to Bratislava to comfort each other or even worse to deny the real challenges we face in this particular moment in the history of our community after the vote in the UK,” said Tusk, who will chair the summit. “We can’t start our discussion ... with this kind of blissful conviction that nothing is wrong, that everything was and is OK,” he added. “We have to assure ... our citizens that we have learned the lesson from Brexit and we are able to bring back stability and a sense of security and effective protection.” Tusk hopes to focus on areas that the 27 leaders can agree on: border security, counter-terrorism and moves to “to bring back control of globalisation”. Officials are playing down expectations of results from the meeting at Bratislava castle, in the capital of Slovakia, one of the four Visegrád countries along with Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic.  Officials close to Tusk hope for small but symbolic breakthroughs, most notably an agreement to send an extra 200 border guards and 50 vehicles to the EU’s external frontier in Bulgaria by next month. Agreeing on stronger border defences is the easy bit. The thorny issue of sharing the cost of protecting refugees is likely to continue to strain unity. The Visegrád group are fiercely opposed to the EU executive’s attempts to fine them for not accepting refugees in their countries. Hungary has flatly refused to take in refugees under an EU quota scheme, while many other countries are falling short. Hungary’s rightwing prime minister, Viktor Orbán, has called a referendum for 2 October on the EU relocation plan, which would see 1,294 asylum seekers sent to the country.  Ahead of the vote, the European commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker, appeared to offer an olive branch to his opponents. In his annual state of the union address, he said solidarity “must come from the heart” and could not be forced.

According to Eurostat, in the month of August, the most significant price increases were seem in food, alcohol and cigarettes, which have posted an annual increase of 1.3%, compared to 1.4% in July, followed by services, which have seen an annual increase of 1.1%, compared to 1.2% seen in July. On the other hand, energy prices have seen an annual decrease of 5.7% in August, compared to a decline of 6.7% seen in July.  Eurostat had previously announced that in July, compared to June 2016, annual inflation dropped in nine EU member countries, has remained stable in seven countries and has increased in 12 states, including Romania, according to Agerpres.  Eurostat has also announced on Wednesday that in July 2016, compared to June 2016, the unemployment rate has remained stable at 10.1% in the Eurozone, while in the European Union the unemployment rate has remained stable at 8.6%. Among the member states, the highest unemployment rates were seen in Greece, (23.5% in May 2016) and Spain (19.6%). On the opposite is Malta, with an unemployment rate of 3.9%, Czech Republic and Germany, both with 4.2%. Romania is below the EU average, with an unemployment rate of 6.1%. Compared to the situation in July 2015, the unemployment rate decreased in 24 member states, including Romania, has remained stable in Denmark and has increased in Estonia, Austria and Belgium.  In Romania's case, according to data notified by the National Statistics Institute, (INS), the annual inflation has remained in negative territory in July as well, at -0.8%, down from -0.7% in June. Calculated based on the harmonized consumer price index, the drop has been -0.3%, the INS states. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate also stood at 6.1%, at the end of July, up 0.1 percentage points over the previous month (6%), according to the standards of the International Labor Bureau. 

An authoritarian European Commission was to blame for Brexit and must give up on its federalist dreams or risk the disintegration of the European Union, eastern European states have warned as the continent’s divisions were laid bare.  “The EU has to change, we have to reform it," the Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydlo told the European Council president, Donald Tusk, at a meeting in Warsaw designed to ensure that post-Brexit Europe could present a united front at a summit in Bratislava on Friday.  The east-west split in Warsaw came on the eve of today’s keynote ‘State of the Union’ speech by Jean-Claude Juncker, the European Commission president, which aides had also hoped would provide a “big bang” moment to show that Europe could deliver for ordinary citizens.  Instead, European capitals descended into a round of bitter mutual recrimination over the future direction of the continent.

Economists at major City investment banks have cancelled forecasts of a Brexit-inspired recession amid fresh data showing the economy performing more robustly than expected. Britain’s trade deficit narrowed significantly in July, as exports increased by £800m to £28.4bn, while imports fell by £300m to £36.6bn. Construction output was also steady in July, faring better than expected a month after the Brexit vote. Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse are among the major banks that have now withdrawn earlier predictions that Britain is likely to enter recession. Other major banks had forecast a “technical recession” with GDP possibly going negative for two quarters later this year or next. Morgan Stanley initially forecast the economy going negative by 0.4% in the third quarter of 2016, but this week changed that to expectations of 0.3% growth. It said: “We’ve ‘marked-to-market’ our growth forecast from a sharp slowdown and Brecession, to a lesser slowdown, which narrowly avoids a technical recession.”  In the days after the vote, Goldman Sachs slashed its growth forecast for the UK by 2.5% over two years. Its chief European economist, Huw Pill, said on 27 June that there would be “a steep fall in activity” as he predicted a “mild recession by early 2017”.  Pill said this week: “The downturn in the UK – while still substantial – is likely to be shallower than we thought in the immediate aftermath of the referendum.” Goldman Sachs is now pencilling in UK growth of 0.9% in 2017.

Eurostat has issued a publication to inform regarding the unemployment rate in Euro area for July.The euro area (EA19) seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate was 10.1% in July 2016, stable compared to June 2016 and down from 10.8% in July 2015. This remains the lowest rate recorded in the euro area since July 2011. The EU28 unemployment rate was 8.6% in July 2016, stable compared to June 2016 and down from 9.4% in July 2015. This remains the lowest rate recorded in the EU28 since March 2009. These figures are published by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.  Eurostat estimates that 21.063 million men and women in the EU28, of whom 16.307 million were in the euro area, were unemployed in July 2016. Compared with June 2016, the number of persons unemployed decreased by 29 000 in the EU28 and by 43 000 in the euro area. Compared with July 2015, unemployment fell by 1.688 million in the EU28 and by 1.034 million in the euro area.

Member States

Among the Member States, the lowest unemployment rates in July 2016 were recorded in Malta (3.9%) as well as in the Czech Republic and Germany (both 4.2%). The highest unemployment rates were observed in Greece (23.5% in May 2016) and Spain (19.6%).  Compared with a year ago, the unemployment rate in July 2016 fell in twenty-four Member States, remained stable in Denmark, while it increased in Estonia (from 6.1% to 7.0% between June 2015 and June 2016), Austria (from 5.7% to 6.0%) and Belgium (from 8.1% to 8.3%). The largest decreases were registered in Cyprus (from 15.0% to 11.6%), Croatia (from 16.5% to 13.2%) and Spain (from 21.9% to 19.6%). In July 2016, the unemployment rate in the United States was 4.9%, stable compared to June 2016 and down from 5.3% in July 2015.

Youth unemployment

In July 2016, 4.276 million young persons (under 25) were unemployed in the EU28, of whom 2.969 million were in the euro area. Compared with July 2015, youth unemployment decreased by 310 000 in the EU28 and by 136 000 in the euro area. In July 2016, the youth unemployment rate was 18.8% in the EU28 and 21.1% in the euro area, compared with 20.2% and 22.1% respectively in July 2015. In July 2016, the lowest rates were observed in Malta (7.1%) and Germany (7.2%), and the highest in Greece (50.3% in May 2016), Spain (43.9%) and Italy (39.2%).

Geographical information

The euro area (EA19) includes Belgium, Germany, Estonia, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Slovenia, Slovakia and Finland. The European Union (EU28) includes Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Croatia, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Hungary, Malta, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Finland, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

Methods and definition

Eurostat produces harmonised unemployment rates for individual EU Member States, the euro area and the EU. These unemployment rates are based on the definition recommended by the International Labour Organisation (ILO). The measurement is based on a harmonised source, the European Union Labour Force Survey (LFS).

Based on the ILO definition, Eurostat defines unemployed persons as persons aged 15 to 74 who:
- are without work;
- are available to start work within the next two weeks;
- and have actively sought employment at some time during the previous four weeks.

The unemployment rate is the number of people unemployed as a percentage of the labour force. The labour force is the total number of people employed plus unemployed. In this news release unemployment rates are based on employment and unemployment data covering persons aged 15 to 74. The youth unemployment rate is the number of people aged 15 to 24 unemployed as a percentage of the labour force of the same age. Therefore, the youth unemployment rate should not be interpreted as the share of jobless people in the overall youth population.

Country notes

Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Finland, Sweden and Iceland: the trend component is used instead of the more volatile seasonally adjusted data.  Denmark, Estonia, Hungary, Portugal, the United Kingdom and Norway: 3-month moving averages of LFS data are used instead of pure monthly indicators.

 French president, Francois Hollande, will inaugurate the Airbus plant in Ghimbav on September 13th, according to sources close to the investors. According to Serge Durand, the CEO of Airbus Helicopters Industries, the first helicopter made in Ghimbav will only be delivered at the end of 2017, but starting with September 2016, the plant will become functional and operational. The company intends to bring in other projects to Braşov if the H215 project proves to be successful.   Serge Durand said: "For now, we have concluded a protocol with Romanian airlines- IAR Ghimbav, Aerostar, Aerotech and Turbomecanica - to become suppliers for the helicopter that will be manufactured in Romania, which will be entirely made out of parts manufactured in Romania".   Serge Durand also stated that Ghimbav will first of all manufacture the civilian version of H215, with production of the military version to be transferred in a few years from the factory in France to the one in Braşov. Moreover, in 2019, Durand hopes that over 30 Romanian engineers will be working on the design of the helicopters that will be manufactured in Ghimbav, with the company intending to develop an R&D center in Romania. The amount of the total investment in the new Airbus Helicopters project in Ghimbav is 55.7 million Euros, of which the aid of the Romanian state is a maximum of 5.2 million Euros. "We will reach 350 employees at the plant of in 2019, when we are going to start manufacturing 15 H215 helicopters a year", Durand further said.   Guillaume Faury, CEO Airbus Helicopters, said that in Ghimbav will be assembled the H215 helicopter, the latest member of the H aircraft family of the German French group, the "smaller" brother of H225. H215 is an advanced variant of the former AS332 Cie/L1e helicopter, which would be sold at "accessible prices", because "the costs are low".  Airbus Helicopters, a division of Airbus Group, offers solutions for civilian and military helicopters all over the world. The company has an operational fleet of approximately 12,000 helicopters operated by over 3,000 customers in approximately 154 countries. Airbus Helicopters has over 22,000 employees all over the world and has generated a revenue of 6.8 billion Euros in 2015. 

The annual inflation rate in the Eurozone has remained stable in August compared to July, at 0.2%, according to a preliminary estimate published on Wednesday by the European Statistics Office (Eurostat).  According to Eurostat, in the month of August, the most significant price increases were seem in food, alcohol and cigarettes, which have posted an annual increase of 1.3%, compared to 1.4% in July, followed by services, which have seen an annual increase of 1.1%, compared to 1.2% seen in July. On the other hand, energy prices have seen an annual decrease of 5.7% in August, compared to a decline of 6.7% seen in July.  Eurostat had previously announced that in July, compared to June 2016, annual inflation dropped in nine EU member countries, has remained stable in seven countries and has increased in 12 states, including Romania, according to Agerpres.  Eurostat has also announced on Wednesday that in July 2016, compared to June 2016, the unemployment rate has remained stable at 10.1% in the Eurozone, while in the European Union the unemployment rate has remained stable at 8.6%. Among the member states, the highest unemployment rates were seen in Greece, (23.5% in May 2016) and Spain (19.6%). On the opposite is Malta, with an unemployment rate of 3.9%, Czech Republic and Germany, both with 4.2%. Romania is below the EU average, with an unemployment rate of 6.1%. Compared to the situation in July 2015, the unemployment rate decreased in 24 member states, including Romania, has remained stable in Denmark and has increased in Estonia, Austria and Belgium.  In Romania's case, according to data notified by the National Statistics Institute, (INS), the annual inflation has remained in negative territory in July as well, at -0.8%, down from -0.7% in June. Calculated based on the harmonized consumer price index, the drop has been -0.3%, the INS states. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate also stood at 6.1%, at the end of July, up 0.1 percentage points over the previous month (6%), according to the standards of the International Labor Bureau. 

Wall Street drew two conclusions from the news that the US jobs engine shifted down into a lower gear last month. The first – that a September increase in interest rates is now a non-starter – was almost certainly right.  Putting up the cost of borrowing so close to the presidential election in early November always looked like an outside bet. It would have taken thunderously good figures for job creation to have persuaded the more dove-ish policymakers at the Federal Reserve to move, and the ones released on Friday were average at best.  To be sure, the August non-farm payrolls have come in worse than expected for the past decade, suggesting that there might be some problem with the way the raw data is seasonally adjusted. What’s more, the two previous months – June and July – saw strong increases in demand for labour, so the three-month average for non-farm payrolls is running at a healthy 200,000. That could persuade some of the hawks at the Fed to move, but they will not be able to muster a majority. The second conclusion drawn by Wall Street is more questionable. That is the assumption that the rate rise some analysts had pencilled in for September has now simply been put back to a later date. Some economists believe the Fed won’t waste any time once US voters have chosen who will be Barack Obama’s successor at the White House; some think the central bank will wait until March next year. There is, though, a different way of looking at the numbers. For most of this year, the strength of the US labour market has been at odds with data showing the economy growing only slowly. Sooner or later, the theory went, growth would accelerate and come into line with employment numbers, so justifying higher interest rates.

The annual inflation rate in the Eurozone has remained stable in August compared to July, at 0.2%, according to a preliminary estimate published on Wednesday by the European Statistics Office (Eurostat).  According to Eurostat, in the month of August, the most significant price increases were seem in food, alcohol and cigarettes, which have posted an annual increase of 1.3%, compared to 1.4% in July, followed by services, which have seen an annual increase of 1.1%, compared to 1.2% seen in July. On the other hand, energy prices have seen an annual decrease of 5.7% in August, compared to a decline of 6.7% seen in July.  Eurostat had previously announced that in July, compared to June 2016, annual inflation dropped in nine EU member countries, has remained stable in seven countries and has increased in 12 states, including Romania, according to Agerpres.   Eurostat has also announced on Wednesday that in July 2016, compared to June 2016, the unemployment rate has remained stable at 10.1% in the Eurozone, while in the European Union the unemployment rate has remained stable at 8.6%. Among the member states, the highest unemployment rates were seen in Greece, (23.5% in May 2016) and Spain (19.6%). On the opposite is Malta, with an unemployment rate of 3.9%, Czech Republic and Germany, both with 4.2%. Romania is below the EU average, with an unemployment rate of 6.1%. Compared to the situation in July 2015, the unemployment rate decreased in 24 member states, including Romania, has remained stable in Denmark and has increased in Estonia, Austria and Belgium.  In Romania's case, according to data notified by the National Statistics Institute, (INS), the annual inflation has remained in negative territory in July as well, at -0.8%, down from -0.7% in June. Calculated based on the harmonized consumer price index, the drop has been -0.3%, the INS states. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate also stood at 6.1%, at the end of July, up 0.1 percentage points over the previous month (6%), according to the standards of the International Labor Bureau.