Romania needs a policy to encourage birth rates, especially for middle-class Romanians.

They have loans, debts and can’t afford the luxury to have a baby and receive a small allowance from the state while on maternal or paternal leave, said Ionut Dumitru, the president of the Fiscal Council, reports local Agerpres.

Moving from an above-the-average income to the child-rearing allowance amounting to some EUR 247 monthly is a shock for Romanians.

“At this pace, we’ll disappear as a nation. Projections show that we will be less than 15 million people by 2050,” said Dumitru.

He added that the state needs to find solutions to determine more Romanians to have children.

editor@romania-insider.com