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The budget deficit at the end of March stands at almost 36 billion RON, and the preliminary budget execution account is 2.07% of GDP, Finance Minister Marcel Bolos said on Tuesday.
"The news regarding the preliminary budget execution account is 2.07% of GDP. There has been a whole debate on the value of the budget deficit at the end of March, of 35 billion RON, rounded at 36 billion RON, but we must point out a few important things related to the value of investments, because we have been coming since December with contracts that we had concluded for the defence industry, which generated payments of over 5 billion RON in January and later in February. On the other hand, being a warmer winter, investment projects continued to be implemented. And I was looking this morning in the budget execution accounts, from the national accounts alone we had capital expenditure of 14.7 billion RON, to which is added the National Recovery and Resilience Plan with 2.7 billion RON and, of course, then the multiannual financial framework for cohesion policy, where we also have around 12 billion RON. Of course, here the adjustments that are related to the European Social Fund and everything that we, let's say, have in mind for the adjustment of these types of expenditure. Not all the amount is counted as investment expenditure, but, as you will see in what we will publish at the due date, after the final closing of the budget execution account, investment expenditure has increased compared to the previous period of last year by about two times," explained Bolos at the Profit.ro event - Investments versus Deficit: Challenges and risks in the economy under the impact of growing public debt and deficits.
He pointed out that there is still work to be done on fiscal adjustment and consolidation and that there are also commitments made under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan regarding tax reform.
The minister said that European funds come with a public investment component and that state aid schemes should be added to the European funds that address the regional level and the business environment.
"As far as the funds allocated for state aid schemes are concerned, we must focus on supporting production activities and especially on the industrial production component. I believe that these high value-added investments can bring Romania an economic development model that is sustainable in the long term and a policy of attracting investment, job creation and, implicitly, the sustainability of Romania's public finances in the long term," said Bolos.A
