Finance minister: Romania’s public deficit hits 2.66% of GDP in Jan-Aug

Romania’s general government budget deficit reached RON 42.53 billion in January-August, or 2.66% of the full year’s projected GDP, finance minister Marcel Bolos announced, Profit.ro reported.

Based on unrevised data, this implies a 29% y/y advance of the deficit. However, as a percentage of the GDP, the advance was more moderate, from 2.40% of GDP in January-August 2022.

In January-July, the deficit was 2.43% of GDP, which implies a 0.23% of GDP deficit in August alone.

Romania initially planned a 4.4%-of-GDP deficit for this year, but last month, the Finance Ministry estimated that the gap would hit 6.8% of GDP unless corrective measures were taken.

The corrective package published by the government recently has a limited impact on the revenues. But the executive still hopes to keep the public gap under 5.5% of GDP – a figure reportedly accepted by the European Commission – which monitors Romania under the Excessive Deficit Procedure.

(Photo source: Gov.ro)