Gasoline production in Russia has fallen to about 65% of the average seasonal consumption level. The problem arose amid Ukrainian drone attacks on energy infrastructure and the shutdown of several major oil refineries.
Bucharest remains the region with the highest salaries in Romania, while Sibiu has become the only county where the average annual net salary has increased by more than 10%. This is according to the latest data from the National Institute of Statistics (INS).
Local authorities in Romanian cities are unable to collect tens of millions of lei in unpaid traffic fines. Some of these debts have been on the books for more than 25 years.
The parliamentary faction of Moldova’s ruling “Action and Solidarity” (PAS) party will nominate Vasile Tofan as a candidate for prime minister. His candidacy will be presented during consultations with President Maia Sandu, which are scheduled for July 11.
Eastern Europe turned out to be the region where the number of dollar millionaires grew the fastest in 2025. Lithuania took the lead, followed by Turkey, Latvia, Hungary, and Ireland. This is according to the annual Global Wealth Report 2025 by the Swiss bank UBS.
Berlin authorities intend to radically change the rules of the game in the rental housing market. Members of the city’s House of Representatives are set to give final approval to a law that will require apartment owners to disclose detailed information about all rental properties. If the law takes effect, Berlin will become the first region in Germany with a unified digital registry of rental housing.
A medieval estate in Italy with its own winery and views of the Val d’Orcia valley topped the Travel + Leisure ranking.
Shares of major software developers fell following reports that Starbucks is developing its own artificial intelligence-based solutions that could replace some of the products from third-party vendors.
Romania’s economy started 2026 on a downward trend: GDP in the first quarter contracted by 1.2% compared to the same period last year. This was confirmed by the country’s National Institute of Statistics (INSSE), which left its preliminary estimate unchanged.
Bernstein has raised its gold price forecast for 2026, anticipating a new wave of demand from central banks.
French authorities have demanded that Meta return to the negotiating table with publishers and news agencies. The antitrust regulator believes that the company’s refusal to renew agreements on payments for the use of news content has already caused serious harm to the French media.
The global economy is facing new risks: inflation is picking up again, and Europe’s largest economies will grow more slowly than expected. This is the conclusion reached by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which, in its new World Economic Outlook report, revised its forecasts for a number of countries and warned of the consequences of rising energy prices and geopolitical tensions.
German rare-book and antique-book stores have encountered an unexpected customer. Companies developing artificial intelligence have begun buying up old editions in large quantities to train language models and chatbots. After being digitized, many of these books are simply taken apart.
The European Parliament has put an end to a long-standing dispute over air passenger rights. After more than a decade of negotiations with EU member state governments and airlines, lawmakers have finally approved updated rules that maintain free carry-on baggage and the right to compensation for long flight delays.
Russia has increased its seaborne oil exports to their highest level since 2022. Over the past four weeks, average shipments have reached 4.22 million barrels per day, Bloomberg reports, citing tanker tracking data.
A French appeals court has modified the sentence imposed on Marine Le Pen, leader of the National Rally party, in a case involving the misuse of European Parliament funds. The court reduced the length of her ban from holding public office from five years to 15 months, which opens the door for her to run in the 2027 presidential election.
Romanians’ pension savings continue to grow at a record pace. In just one year, the assets of mandatory private pension funds (Pilonul II) increased by 37% and reached 227.5 billion RON (about $49.7 billion) by the end of May 2026.
Electric vehicles are rapidly gaining popularity in Romania. While the overall new-car market grew by just 0.3% in the first half of 2026, sales of fully electric vehicles jumped by 76.6%. Their market share reached 8.5%.
The global diamond market continued to show mixed trends in June: prices for smaller stones continued to rise, while prices for one-carat diamonds fell.
In the first half of 2026, Italy maintained its leading position in the European tourism market: the number of tourist arrivals rose by 4.43% compared to the same period last year. Foreign tourists were the main driver of this growth.
