Decisions on monetary policy
In its meeting of 7 February 2020, the Board of the National Bank of Romania decided the following: to keep the monetary policy rate at 2.50 percent per annum; to leave unchanged the deposit facility rate at 1.50 percent per annum and the lending facility rate at 3.50 percent per annum; to cut the minimum reserve requirement ratio on foreign currency-denominated liabilities of credit institutions to 6 percent from 8 percent starting with the 24 February – 23 March 2020 maintenance period and to maintain the minimum reserve requirement ratio on leu-denominated liabilities at 8 percent.
The annual CPI inflation rate went up in December 2019 to 4.0 percent from 3.8 percent in November, i.e. above the variation band of the flat target and slightly higher than the forecast. The rise versus end-Q3, when it dropped to 3.5 percent, owes mainly to the faster dynamics of fuel prices, inter alia amid a base effect, but also to the notable hike in fruit prices, as well as to the acceleration in core inflation.
E-commerce: amendments for exchange of VAT payment data
A set of rules to facilitate detection of tax fraud in cross-border e-commerce transactions was adopted by Council of th EU in february. The new measures will enable member states to collect, in a harmonised way, the records made electronically available by payment service providers, such as banks. In addition, a new central electronic system will be set up for the storage of the payment information and for the further processing of this information by national anti-fraud officials.
Main amendments
Amendments to the VAT directive putting in place requirements on payment service providers to keep records of cross-border payments related to e-commerce. This data will then be made available to national tax authorities under strict conditions, including those related to data protection.
Amendments to a regulation on administrative cooperation in the area of VAT. These amendments set out the details of how national tax authorities will cooperate in this area to detect VAT fraud and control compliance with VAT obligations.
The turnover of market services rendered mainly to enterprises in December 2019
According to data published in February by the National Institute of Statistics, compared to the previous month, in December 2019 the turnover of market services rendered mainly to enterprises, in nominal terms, increased both as gross series by 5.0% and as adjusted series according to the number of working days and to seasonality by 3.3%.
Compared to the corresponding month of the previous year, the turnover of market services rendered mainly to enterprises, in nominal terms, increased both as gross series by 9.4% and as adjusted series according to the number of working days and to seasonality by 8.6%. Compared to the period 1.I-31.XII.2018, in the period 1.I-31.XII.2019 the turnover of market services rendered mainly to enterprises, in nominal terms, increased as gross series by 10.6%.
New EU visa rules
New EU rules on short-stay visas apply worldwide from 2 February 2020. They make it easier for legitimate travellers to apply for a visa to come to Europe, facilitating tourism, trade and business, while providing more resources for countering irregular migration risks and threats to internal security.
The changes apply to travellers from all countries which need visas to travel to the EU. Currently, citizens from 105 non-EU countries or entities are required to have a visa. Nothing changes for countries benefitting from visa-free travel to the EU because the new rules do not apply to their citizens.
With the new rules, travellers now benefit from a simpler and more user-friendly visa application procedure:
- Visa applications can be submitted up to 6 months before the intended travel (9 months for seafarers), instead of 3 months previously, allowing travellers to better plan their trips;
- Multiple-entry visas with long validity (from 1 to 5 years) are now easier to obtain, saving frequent travellers time and money, as they will have to apply for a new visa less often;
- In most cases, an application can be submitted directly in the traveller’s country of residence, and where possible filled in and signed electronically (only hard copies were accepted until now), which will also save travellers time, money and hassle.