FinMin Citu: Budget deficit has been covered with loans from market at decreasing interest rates

Romania enters 2020 with a budget, without the majority of measures introduced through Government Emergency ordinance (OUG) No.114 and the budget deficit has been covered with loans from the market at decreasing interest rates, Public Finance Minister Florin Citu wrote on his Facebook page on Tuesday. 

"We enter 2020 with a budget, without the majority of the devastating measures for economy introduced by the PSD [the Social Democratic Party] through OUG No.114, without the split VAT. Just as I have promised you, the budget deficit has been covered with loans from the market at decreasing interest rates. We made savings. In addition, the buffer increased against the moment when we took over the governance (it was no longer used as in the PSD governance to cover the deficit by selling foreign currencies). This means that the financial markets and the investors have confidence in this Government, and in the solutions promoted by us," the Public Finance Minister said. 

He added that "good things are coming up for Romanians in 2020." 

The Government took responsibility on Monday, in the joint plenary meeting of the Deputies' Chamber and the Senate on the draft of the 2020 State Budget Law. 

"Our objective was to succeed in adopting by 31 December the budget and the social insurance budget draft law. (...) We are using for the first time a way of adopting the state budget that has not been used before - the procedure of the Government assuming responsibility. It is a procedure regulated in the Constitution and unlike a Government Emergency Ordinance, it has aspects that make it more democratic. We have surprised with the assumption of responsibility. (...) We have passed many amendments drafted by the MPs. If there are parties that consider the law must not come into force, they have at their disposal the censure motion instrument," Prime Minister Ludovic Orban said in Parliament's plenary, at the joint meeting for the assumption of responsibility on the budget. 

Moreover, the Government also took responsibility over the amendments of OUG No.114/2018. 

"The draft law stipulates the correction of provisions related to the energy area, the financial-banking area, the communication area, the private pension funds area. Moreover, it also includes a series of measures, exactly as the OUG No.114 included in several areas of activity, from matters related to bonuses to matters related to different types of regulations," the PM explained in the plenary meeting of Parliament.