Romanian PM Citu cuts social security spending under budget revision draft

Most of the ministries and public agencies, except for the ministry of labour and social protection, the Court of Accounts and the Senate, will receive supplementary funds under the budget revision already drafted by the Romanian Government and released to the media.

The biggest supplementary allocations are for health (RON 3.5 bln), public finance (+3.2 bln) and development, public works and administration (RON 1.8 bln).

Notably, out of the RON 3.2 bln supplementary funds for the ministry of finance, RON 3 bln will go, in fact, to the reserve fund that is under the direct control of the prime minister, Hotnews.ro explained.

Prime minister Florin Citu said that only RON 9 bln of funds were allocated, compared to RON 38 bln asked by ministries.

The budget of the health ministry will increase by 20% (RON 3.5 bln / EUR 700 mln) compared to the “updated budget” (updated for the deviations from planned H1 target, most likely), to RON 21.3 bln or more than EUR 4 bln, (nearly 2% of GDP) according to the draft document published by Profit.ro.

This budget comes on top of the public health insurance budget. In contrast, the budget of labour and social protection will decrease by 5% (RON 2.8 bln) to RON 51 bln or more than EUR 10 bln.

Similarly, this budget is financing the deficit of the social security fund. Significant supplementary funds will be distributed to development, public works and administration (RON 1.84 bln, or 25% of the updated budget).

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