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The leader of the PNL (National Liberal Party), Ludovic Orban, on Thursday said, at the Congress of the National Trade Union Bloc (BNS), that Romania will have to stay within a budget deficit of 7pct this year, which requires "extremely moderate" spending from the budget and rapid economic growth, according to AGERPRES.
"Romania is the only country in the European Union on which the excessive deficit procedure has been triggered (...). We must be extremely rigorous in front of our European partners and in front of the international financial environment, investors, to show that we have a plan to restore the budgetary balance, the economic balance and to restart all the economic development engines as quickly as possible. This year we must stay within a deficit of 7pct and, gradually, by 2024, we will have to return to a deficit below 3pct, according to the EU Treaty. This will mean, besides the fastest possible economic growth, a great deal of restraint in terms of generating new budget expenditures, because, I repeat, the plan to return to an acceptable budgetary balance is a plan that we will have to implement with a lot of determination," Ludovic Orban said in the opening of the BNS Congress.
He explained that a large deficit means less resources for Romanian citizens through budgets and that a large part of the debt will be paid, in the end, from taxes and duties.
"We aim to ensure economic growth as quickly as possible, based on sustainable, solid growth engines, investments, innovation, digitization, attracting European funds, supporting Romanian citizens who want to set up businesses," Orban added.
The PNL leader pointed out that many of the measures during the pandemic period were taken after consultation with the social partners, trade unions, employers, professional associations.
He added that he had made every effort to keep the economic shock caused by the pandemic as low as possible.
Orban claimed that the number of employees with an employment agreement at the level of December was significantly equal or slightly higher compared to the number of employees in January, before the pandemic.
