After talks with the IMF, Romania revises GDP growth downwards

Romania's Government recently revised downwards the increase in the country's Gross Domestic Product for this year, to 1.6 percent, from a previous 1.8 percent. The change came after recent talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Several days ago, the Government had announced the prudent target of 1.8 percent increase for 2013 and was even hoping to make the optimistic 2 percent GDP increase mark this year. In the current form of the budget, the increase is 0.2 percentage points lower, and the country's GDP is expected to stay at some EUR 138.5 billion (or RON 623 billion). Budget revenues cover 33.6 percent of the GDP, and expenses in the consolidated budget, 35.7 percent. The calculated budget deficit should be of 2.1 percent of the GDP. The average net salary in Romania taken into account for these calculations is RON 1,615 – or the equivalent of some EUR 360. The budget also takes into account the 465,000 unemployed, the 4.48 million employed people, and the 5.4 million pensioners in Romania. editor@romania-insider.com