InterimFinMin Citu says former gov't discussed dangers of overshooting deficit target, agrees on inquiry committee

Interim Finance Minister Florin Citu of the National Liberal Party (PNL) said Wednesday evening that he agrees on a parliamentary inquiry committee being set up to which he will present all the documents and notes of the former government stating there is a major risk of overshooting the 3-percent government deficit.

"We accept the parliamentary inquiry committee. We all go there (...) with all the documents and notes presented to the government of Viorica Dancila and the minister in which they said there is a major risk of overshooting the deficit. We also have documents that show they met with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to talk about the danger of overshooting the 3pct deficit and they promised measures. They promised measures they did not take. There were increases in excise duties and some measures on the expenditure side. There were documents circulating in the Romanian Government indicating the 3pct deficit will be exceeded. They said that the deficit target of 3pct is in danger and a rescheduling of pensions was recommended," Citu told Realitatea Plus.

He underscored that some of the documents are classified, some are just informative notes.

"A parliamentary inquiry committee will surely be able to declassify things. We create an inquiry committee; we also take a look at the notes from the beginning of the year at the ministry where they were warned that the deficit may be 4pct and they must take measures; we have to see how come the budget revision was positive. Mr Ghizdeanu [former chairman of the National Commission for Strategy and Forecasting] has a very important role here when overestimating economic growth, overestimating revenues," added Citu.

He said that upon taking over office, the government receipts were lower by 19 billion lei than those estimated in the budget, and in order to reduce the deficit, 10 billion lei had to be cut from outlays.

"What could have been salvaged at that time? To reduce the deficit you had to cut spending by 10 billion lei. Do you realise what cutting 10 billion lei in two months means? You would have blown up the economy. I have talked to the European Commission and I presented the situation and especially the best solution for Romanians. To me it is not the best solution. Do you think it is good to me as a liberal to go there and not be able to implement a liberal government program? Do you think I am a minister who wants to be associated with excessive deficit? No, but this is the situation today and I try to fix it. These ideas that you could have narrowed the deficit immediately, overnight, when you had a hole of 19 billion lei clearly show the inexperience of those who speak on the topic," said Citu