Romania's prime minister Ludovic Orban invited all the ministers to "very seriously" evaluate their requests in the view of the budget revision because "each dime will have to be carefully allotted" to the priority projects.

"The Romanian economy, like all the world's economies, was affected by the COVID pandemic, and we will have to save every penny. Particularly, we have to allocate resources to important projects that make a difference for the citizens' living conditions and further economic development," Orban said, News.ro reported.

Speaking about the budget deficit, finance minister Florin Citu stressed that, so far, Romania has made the smallest post-COVID budget revision among the European Union's countries: only 3% of GDP compared to, for instance, Poland's 9.3% of GDP. Countries in the Euro area revised their budget balance by an average of 7.6% of GDP.

Even considering that Romania's 6.7%-of-GDP deficit target is overly-optimistic, the extra expenditures generated by the pandemic in Romania will be smaller, as a percentage of GDP, compared to most of other EU member states. This indicates the country's limited borrowing capacity (available without putting excessive pressure on the sovereign rating) and will result in smaller support for economic recovery. 

editor@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Gov.ro)