The budget execution in the first three quarters of the year leaves room for expenditures that were not planned in advance but are essential for the population - such as the electricity price subsidisation, acting finance minister Dan Vilceanu said, according to Adevarul.

A bill aimed at capping the electricity prices for households is currently under debate in Parliament.

The budget execution also reveals that the Government has increased the public investments - which is one of the main elements of the Government’s policy.

The public deficit in the first nine months of the year was RON 44.3 bln (EUR 9 bln), the equivalent of 3.77% of GDP. The Government targets a 7.13% of GDP deficit for the whole year (cash terms).

Regarding the budget execution in the first nine months of the year, the revenues increased by 18.7% YoY to RON 270.4 bln (23.0% of GDP, up from 21.6% of GDP in Jan-Sep 2020). Half of the increase in revenues was explained by the higher VAT and excise tax collections.

The expenditures increased by only 6.7% YoY to RON 314.6 bln (26.8% of GDP, down from 27.9% of GDP in Jan-Sep 2020). Among the key expenditures, the public payroll increased by only 2.2% YoY to RON 82.7 bln - 7.0% of GDP, down from 7.7% of GDP in Jan-Sep 2020. Notably, the public sector payroll contracted by 2.4% YoY in Q3 alone.

In contrast, the social security expenditures increased by 7.5% YoY to RON 111.8 bln, or 9.5% of GDP, still down from 9.9% of GDP in Jan-Sep 2020.

iulian@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Inquam Photos/Ilona Andrei)