RO president signs 2020 state budget law

Romania’s president Klaus Iohannis promulgated on Monday, January 6, the state budget law for 2020.

The law was adopted at the end of December 2019 without a debate in the Parliament as the Liberal Government led by prime minister Ludovic Orban chose to take responsibility for the bill in front of the lawmakers.

The procedure, which was used for the first time in Romania in the last 30 years for passing the state budget law, allowed the Government to avoid the already strained budget to be altered by the Parliament, where it only has minority support.

The opposition, which had the possibility to file a no-confidence motion against the Government, chose not to do this.

The leader of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), which has the most seats in the Parliament, criticized the Government for adopting the budget with no debate and said it would challenge the procedure at the Constitutional Court.

The state budget for 2020 provides a deficit of 3.6% of the GDP, lower than the one estimated for 2019 (4.5% of GDP), but still significantly over the 3% of GDP limit required by EU norms.

The budget for 2020 is built on an expected real economic growth of 4.1% this year, which is considered optimistic by most economists.

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