Romania’s Fiscal Council says public deficit will “very likely” increase significantly in 2024

Emphasizing that the potential revenues generated by digitalization and lower tax evasion can not be included as certain resources in the budget planning, Romania’s Fiscal Council (CF) on December 14 concluded that the public gap “will very likely exceed significantly in 2024 the [5.9%-of-GDP] deficit of 2023.”

The Fiscal Council expressed this opinion based on the first draft of the 2024 budget planning submitted by the government on December 9. Subsequent amendments, which are multiple, were not accounted for, the FC said.

The Fiscal Council also objected to the structure of the planned fiscal consolidation during 2025-2027, namely to its reliance on adjustments on the expenditure side. The Council again stressed that the revenues side should be consolidated as well, arguing that the reforms pledged by Romania under the Resilience Facility plan are designed to positively affect revenues.

During the night of December 14 to December 15, the government of Romania was discussing the budget planning for 2024 with no predictable outcome.

The Economic and Social Council (CES) had issued during the day a negative opinion, and many categories of employees or industries objected to the Budget Law after learning that the funds promised to their sectors(such as education) were not included in the latest available draft.

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