Romania's Govt. plans to keep public deficit below the 5.84%-of-GDP target this year

The Romanian Government has prepared a budget revision envisaging a full-year deficit of 5.74% of GDP, compared to 5.84% of GDP previously. It promises to come up with the budget planning for 2023 by mid-December.

"The Romanian Government has completed the analysis for the last budget revision this year. This revision, which will be positive, envisages an increase in the revenues of the general government budget by RON 500 mln (EUR 100 mln)", the Executive reports.

The revenues and expenses to the general government budget will increase each by some RON 520 mln, and the deficit in cash terms remains at RON 80.2 bln (EUR 16 bln), according to the draft budget revision published by the Ministry of Finance. Profit tax revenues are expected to be RON 1.5 bln above the previous target, while VAT collections would underperform by a similar amount.

The largest positive impact comes, however, from the non-tax revenues (oil royalties, dividends related to the 2021 financial year, interest income and other payments from the net revenues of the National Bank of Romania BNR): RON 3.7 bln more than expected initially. However, the amounts expected as transfers [from the EU budget]under the Resilience Facility were revised downwards by RON 5.8 bln.

On the expenditures side, the interest on public debt is revised upwards by RON 3 bln (EUR 600 mln).

The Government assures that it has all the necessary amounts for the payment of wages in the budgetary sector and the social assistance expenditures, as well as for the proper functioning of all public institutions, until the end of the year.

At the same time, the Government decided to create the legal framework for increasing the indebtedness of Bucharest City Hall, needed to allow subsidies for transport, distribution and thermal energy supply services for the population in a centralized system.

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