Romanian finance minister Alexandru Nazare, in an interview given to Digi24, said that the payment of pensions and wages in the budgetary sector depends on the budget amendment that must earmark supplementary funds to these categories, Cursdeguvernare.ro reported.
Romania inked a budget plan for this year in January with a 7%-of-GDP deficit target and it is currently striving to keep the gap below 8% of GDP. The economic growth, initially assumed at 2.4%, will probably not exceed 1% according to the independent analysts.
However, the higher-than-expected inflation, partly due to the VAT rate hike, will predictably push up the nominal GDP in line with the initial projections while bringing supplementary revenues to the government’s accounts.
“There will be money for salaries and pensions. There will be money. But that does not mean that the assumptions on which this budget was built are realistic,” the Romanian minister of finance commented.
Nazare warned that the local administration can no longer afford to spend money on public events such as those typically organised during the summer holiday.
The budget planning, as inked in January by essentially the same ruling coalition (which did not include the Save Romania Union USR), was as unrealistic as it has been over the past years, Minister Nazare commented.
The assumptions on which the budget was built and approved “do not hold up in many places,” not just at the Ministry of Education, he stated.
“We are in the middle of the year, we will have to remedy the situation. […] We will do this, therefore, the next rectification is not an easy exercise at all. Precisely because we have extremely many pressures, from many sides, and the pressure of investments, because we still have to, we have the PNRR to finish,” said Alexandru Nazare on July 31.
iulian@romania-insider.com
(Photo source: Facebook/Alexandru Nazare)
Leave a Reply