Romania’s budget deficit not far from EU average this year

Romania’s seasonally adjusted general government budget deficit in the first half of the year was only slightly wider compared to the European Union’s average: 7% of GDP in Q1 and 6.7% of GDP in Q2, according to Eurostat.

For comparison, Romania posted deficits much wider on average compared to the EU in 2019 and 2020. In the first two quarters of 2021, the public deficit to GDP ratio in the EU on average was only 0.4pp smaller.

Among the EU Member States for which data are available, the highest public deficit in the second quarter of 2021 was in France (9.6% of GDP), Hungary (8.5% of GDP), Spain (7.3%). Latvia (7% of GDP), Malta (6.9% of GDP) and Romania (6.7% of GDP).

For the entire year, the Romanian Government targets 7.1%-of-GDP public deficit - a figure that is directly comparable with the seasonally adjusted deficits reported by Eurostat on a quarterly basis.

But it doesn’t report quarterly deficit-to-GDP ratios. The Romanian Government reported an H1 public deficit at nearly 3.0% of the GDP projected for the whole year.

(Photo: Dreamstime)