Romania is waiting on Friday evening for a very important decision from the rating agency S&P and I am optimistic that it will affirm their current rating of Romania, as the other rating agencies have done, Finance Minister Alexandru Nazare said on Thursday at the AGRI4FUTURE Romania - Objective 2035 National Conference.
He said that, after his speech at the conference, he will go straight to the airport to leave for Luxembourg, where he will participate in a meeting of the EU Council of Finance Ministers.
"Tomorrow is the council meeting, tomorrow evening we will be waiting for a very important decision from the S&P rating agency. I am optimistic about their decision. I think that, just as the other rating agencies have affirmed their rating, I am optimistic that this rating agency will do the same. Of course, we are waiting for the agency's final report, but I think that three validations from the three rating agencies in these 100 days, 100 days after the government was sworn in, are a very important message," the minister said.
In his opinion, Romania should not be satisfied with just maintaining the rating at a class above junk, but should strive to increase it, in order to borrow at lower interest rates.
"We should not be satisfied with preserving the rating at a class above junk, at a class above the recommended rating for investment. It's too little for Romania, in terms of level of ambition, just to sit in a class above the junk. The more we increase this rating, the lower the interest rates will be, both for the state and for the private sector. It is the best indicator of the real performance of the state, in general, both for the administration and for the private sector. The more Romania's rating increases, which is an extremely complex issue, which analyses a lot of things, including stability and the economic situation and the prospects for the future, the more interest rates will start to fall. And you have seen that after the first anchors, the main packages, the first anchors of stability, it has already been seen when we financed ourselves that we have results. The curve starts to decrease. It won't happen overnight. We went out on the markets repeatedly we saw a small result, it can be seen in the way we finance ourselves. We have to be consistent, and I am very optimistic that, if we keep up this position, at the end of next year we will return to the 2024 target, towards 6%, so we will return to where we should be. The more we maintain this posture, the better the image we project will be."
Nazare added that Romania must be consistent in its measures to see the benefits, in order to be able to ask for funding from the European Commission, without having to give continuous explanations on its budget deficit.
"Consolidation we will prove that it is real, we will demonstrate that we keep our word and, when you demonstrate and keep your word - and it is seen in numbers, not just in words that you keep your word - you also see the benefits. And I'm very optimistic that that will happen if we stick to this program, of course, because we need to get rid of these explanations that we have to give every time: Why is the deficit big? Why couldn't we meet the deficit target for one year, the second year, the third year? It amputates our ability to negotiate if we always have to give explanations before we can ask for things. Romania deserves to ask for things and we must return again, at the end of 2026, to the agreed deficit target, so that we have all the options on the table to discuss in ECOFIN, to discuss the European budget, to ask for funding for Romania, as we have achieved now."
In this regard, he mentioned the fact that the funding of the Moldavia Motorway was switched to grant.
"The fact that the Moldavian Highway switched from loan to grant is due to negotiations that took place in the Ministry of Finance. We did not manage to switch the Moldavia Motorway to grant when we negotiated the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), we have succeeded now. It is very important, because that guarantees the financing of the Moldavia Motorway, so that, in August 2026, those two sections will be financed. and, moreover, through SAFE, the A7 and A8 continue to be funded. After this lot, which is financed under PNNR, through SAFE we finance the other ends of A7 and A8. As such, the Moldavia already has clear sources of financing secured under two programmes, until the completion of the PNNR and after the start of SAFE."
The minister told farmers that he will make sure that the Ministry of Finance will support the Ministry of Agriculture in creating programmes to back their business.
"The Ministry of Finance, through the privileged relationship it has with all international financial institutions, will be there to support the Ministry of Agriculture in developing new programmes, in finding new ways to finance, so that we can get over this period in which farmers have faced a dearth of funding and difficulties in accessing credits and difficulties including in the dialogue with the central administration."
Nazare on Thursday attended the AGRI4FUTURE Romania - Objective 2035 National Conference organised by the Romanian Farmers' Club.
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