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The leader of the National Liberal Party (PNL), former Prime Minister Florin Citu claimed, on Friday, in Alba Iulia, that if in the last month of the previous year he would've stayed in government the budget deficit would not have been larger than 5%.
Asked in a press conference how he comments on the fact that, according to data published on Friday by the European Statistical Office, Romania (7.1% of the GDP) is, together with Malta (8.1%) and Spain (7.3%), among the countries with the highest government deficit at the end of Q3 2021, Florin Citu said that when he left government the deficit was 4%.
"Romania had in the past year, in 2021, the highest increase in the European Union and has reduced the budget deficit from nearly 10% in 2020 towards 7%. Now I tell you that when I left government, the budget deficit was 4%|, so after 11 months, a budget deficit of 4%. Now, if in the last month we had stayed in government, I don't think it would've gone higher than 5%. I hope it didn't go towards 7, because that would mean having a deficit of three percent in the last month, a rise like that in only one month. You should know they're all connected. If you start spending without investing, you are surely going towards failure," said the former Prime Minister.
Citu added that he doesn't want to see in the budget money taken from investments and that would go to social expenses, because, he believes, that would be "the recipe for disaster", Agerpres.ro informs.
"On one hand, the budget expenses must be maintained in the income side as well, of course, you have to keep what was in force last year. Because last year we had budget incomes higher by almost 24 billion than initially estimated. There is income to the budget when there is also economic growth, it's true. In order to have economic growth, you must invest. The moment you stray from the formula 'when you invest you have economic growth', you're going in a different direction and then, I guarantee you that you can only be heading for disaster," said the PNL chair.
Florin Citu added that he would have continued and that public administration reform must be continued. In what regards pensions, said Florin Citu, "all pensions go towards the contributive system and then wage reform."
Florin Citu is chairman of the PNL, party which is currently in government in a rotational system together with the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania (UDMR). Current Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca is also an elected senator on PNL's lists for Dolj County.
