News about Macroeconomics
US President Donald Trump is seriously considering making Venezuela the 51st state.
The Hungarian real estate market and under former Prime Minister Viktor Orban was the fastest growing in the EU: according to Eurostat, in 2025 it grew by 23.7%.
After weeks of Russian Urals crude benefiting from a global supply shortage, the market has suddenly changed direction. The Urals discount to benchmark Brent crude increased for the first time since the start of the war in Iran.
The European Union could send Ukraine the first tranche from a 90 billion euro loan package as early as next week.
The main flight routes were in the vicinity of Havana and Santiago de Cuba. The operations involved P-8A Poseidon patrol aircraft designed for maritime reconnaissance and surveillance, as well as RC-135V Rivet Joint electronic surveillance aircraft and MQ-4C Triton high-altitude drones. The Pentagon declined to comment on the developments.
A large-scale nationwide strike is planned for May 12, 2026 in Belgium, organized by the country’s largest trade unions in protest against the government’s socio-economic policies, working conditions and planned reforms in the pension system. Severe disruptions in public transportation and air travel are expected.
The EU may start direct membership talks with Ukraine by the end of June. This was announced by European Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos today, 11 May. Commissioner Kos urged member states to officially open all negotiating clusters on Ukraine’s membership as soon as possible.
In April 2026, average consumer prices in Moldova increased by 6.8% year-on-year, up 4.5% YTD, confirming the acceleration trend. In March, the annual inflation rate was 5.8%, after the January minimum of 4.8%.
Bitcoin stabilized on Monday, squandering much of the weekend’s gains amid escalating tensions over Iran, which offset optimism over progress on the U.S. regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies.
Russia expects clarifications from Armenia in connection with the visit of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to that country, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said.
President Maia Sandu held talks with a mission of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on a new cooperation program under the Policy Coordination Instrument (PCI). The meeting took place on Sunday, May 10, during the visit of the IMF mission to Chisinau between May 7 and 20.
Iran’s record-long internet outage is hitting private businesses hard. Business owners warn that it could lead to mass layoffs and business closures. Losses from lack of access “to the net” are estimated in the billions of dollars.
Romanian President Nicusor Dan made a video message on the occasion of Europe Day and Romania’s Independence Day, in which he spoke about what his country has achieved during almost 20 years in the EU (Romania officially joined the Community on January 1, 2007).
CAIR – A group of developing countries launched the Borrowers’ Platform on April 15 to create a stronger collective voice in debt management discussions and international financial negotiations.
The period from 2026 to 2035 has been declared the “Decade of Family and Demography” in Turkey.
The ruling Labor Party suffered heavy losses in the UK local elections, losing a significant portion of seats to the right-wing populist Reform UK. Voting took place this week in England, as well as in elections for the Scottish and Welsh parliaments.
PARIS – The war in Iran has caused a dramatic redistribution of global wealth.
The European Union remains Moldova’s key financial partner, providing more than 72% of direct foreign investments, about 59% of external grants and more than 19% of the country’s external loans. This was stated by IDIS Viitorul expert Veaceslav Ionita.
The National Bank of Moldova (NBM) reported a favorable economic growth forecast for the first quarter of 2026, noting positive dynamics in industry, agriculture and retail trade. However, along with this, the National Bank decided to tighten monetary policy to control inflation by raising the prime rate to 6.5% per annum.
According to the National Bank of Moldova (NBM), the official reserve assets at the end of April 2026 amounted to 5,209.83 million euros, decreasing by 56.71 million euros year-on-year. The main factors for the decrease were the depreciation of the dollar against the euro (40.69 million euros) and payments for servicing the external public debt (21.53 million euros).
