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The 2019 budget blueprint is in the realm of "science fiction" and the National Liberal Party (PNL) will submit substantive amendments to help improve it, Liberal Chairman Ludovic Orban said on Friday.
"A budget in the realm of science fiction, because it is based on fiction about its fundamentals, specifically an inflation rate of 2.8 pct. Let's recall that at the moment the PSD-ALDE ruling coalition took over government, the annual inflation rate was almost zero, it soared to an annualized 5.4 pct, and is currently 4.6 annualized, or, with a collapsing domestic leu, chain price hikes in the pipeline due to rising costs of electricity and natural gas, we will obviously have an inflationary flare-up and obviously the 2.8 pct inflation rate proposed in this budget is science fiction, it's a lie. The euro-leu exchange rate, although at 4.76, is set at 4.67 lei for 1 euro in the budget draft. It's a brazen lie, because the leu will continue to weaken, because the negative phenomena that happen in the economy will certainly affect the strength of the national currency and will implicitly lead to the leu further losing ground to the euro," said Ludovic Orban.
According to him, "the 5.5 pct economic growth is also a false premise" as long as all the forecasts made by prestigious international institutions point to an economic growth of 4 pct at the most, and growth will most likely not exceed 3 pct."
The PNL Chairman added that the government has not fulfilled its obligations as regards the Army endowment program either, because "it wasn't able to spend 2 pct of GDP for Defense, to support the procurement program, and all procurement procedures are currently blocked."
