Financial assets of public administration sector reach 23.5 pct of GDP end-Q1 2021

The financial assets of the public administration sector increased by 1.1 percentage points in the first quarter of 2021, reaching 23.5% of GDP, according to data centralized by the National Bank of Romania (BNR).

The public administration's deposits and cash increased by 1.1 percentage points in the first three months of this year, compared to the same period in 2020, and accounted for 4.6% of GDP. Stock holdings and other state participations decreased by 0.1 percentage points, reaching 9.8% of GDP, and the position of other accounts receivable (taxes, duties, social contributions, trade receivables, amounts owed by economic agents to public authorities and external receivables) increased by 0.2 percentage points, reaching 6.3% of GDP.

The balance of financial liabilities of the public administration increased more sharply than that of financial assets. Thus, the financial commitments of the public administration accounted for 55% of the Gross Domestic Product in the analyzed quarter (by approximately 11 percentage points more than in the first quarter of 2020).

"This increase is largely explained by the evolution of debt securities issues in lei, both for financing the budget deficit and for refinancing public debt. In the first quarter of 2021, this debt instrument accounted for 40.3% of GDP, 8.6 percentage points more than in the same period of the previous year. The balance of committed appropriations increased by 1.6 percentage points in the analyzed period, reaching 6.4% of GDP, and the items in the category of other amounts payable increased by 0.7 percentage points, up to 7.6% from GDP," mentions the BNR.

The public administration sector registered a financing need in both analyzed periods, of 2% of GDP in the first quarter of 2021 and of 1.8% of GDP in the first quarter of 2020, respectively.

The central administration presented financing needs both in the first quarter of 2021 (2% of GDP) and in the first quarter of 2020 (1.8% of GDP), while local administrations registered financing capacity in the analyzed period, of 0.4% of GDP in the first quarter of 2021 and 0.1% of GDP in the same quarter of the previous year, respectively.

Social security funds had financing needs both in the first quarter of 2021 (0.3% of GDP) and in the first quarter of 2020 (0.1% of GDP), agerpres reports.