Romania's 2019 budget planning remains in limbo

Romania's prime minister Viorica Dancila said that "chances are high" for the 2019 budget planning to be endorsed by the lawmakers by the end of the year adding that she is "optimistic" about getting the preliminary green light from the country's security body CSAT before that, local Economica.net reported. The CSAT meeting on December 11 was suspended because of the multitude of topics on the agenda (dominated by procurement contracts) and will be resumed on December 19, two days before the Parliament's recess. The deficit target (3% of GDP) will not be exceeded, PM Dancila added. However, the EUR 10 billion (RON 10 billion, according to other sources) investment budget that ruling coalition leader Liviu Dragnea promised to regional authorities added more skepticism to the opposition's and independent analysts' expectations in regard to the future fiscal policies. The Government has avoided sending the bill in Parliament before securing safe majority, according to unofficial sources quoted by HotNews.ro. The ruling coalition indeed lost majority in the Chamber of Deputies after four MPs pulled out to join the political vehicle of the former prime minister Victor Ponta. But there might be other reasons for the repeated delays: the Government simply promised too much, in terms of spending, and it is unlikely to avoid breaching the 3% of GDP Maastricht benchmark possibly as soon as this year. Junior coalition party leader Calin Popescu-Tariceanu reportedly complained that his MPs were not allowed to contribute to the budget design and that the ministries under his party's supervision were given insufficient funds. Pension increase will be included in budget for 2019 editor@romania-insider.com (photo source: Pixabay.com)