The budget revision would not be discussed in the April 9 Government meeting, Romania’s prime minister Ludovic Orban announced before the meeting, while finance minister Florin Citu implied that the executive was far from sketching the basic principles.

The problem is not the widening deficit but financing it. Minister Citu mentioned revenues dropping by RON 20 billion (EUR 4.1 bln) and expenditure increasing by some RON 12-13 bln (EUR 2.5-2.7 bln) in just a couple of weeks, local Economica.net reported. The figures seem to reflect preliminary projections for the full year’s revenues and expenditures under a “no-change in policies” scenario.

The RON 32 bln (EUR 6.7 bln, or 3.3% of GDP) on top of the 3.6%-of-GDP initial public deficit target would result in 6.9% of GDP deficit, which is close to the consensus expectations of independent analysts. However, as the deficit financing remains problematic, part of the public expenditures might be trimmed down.

“We have to evaluate the sectors where the expenditures are the biggest, and try to defer part of the expenditures for 2021,” minister Citu stated.

The sectors where the largest part of the public expenditures are concentrated are those of the public payroll and social security, he added.

As regards the prime minister’s comment about part of non-critical public sector staff being sent in technical unemployment “by rotation”, minister Citu said that he was not aware of this.

As regards other key decisions, minister Citu said that the children allowances will not be doubled this year (as provisioned under a law already promulgated, but deferred by Government) and the 40% pension hilke in September will be operated “depending on the resources in the budget”.

editor@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Inquam Photos/Octav Ganea)