Romanian PM: We have a budget surplus in the first ten months for the first time in 25 years

Romania ended the first ten months of this year with a budget surplus, for the first time in 25 years, said Prime Minister Victor Ponta, according to local Agerpres. The budget revenues in the first ten months were close to EUR 39.6 billion while the expenses totaled some EUR 39.5 billion, according to Ponta. This mainly came from cutting public investments. The Government hasn’t yet published the budget execution statistics for the first ten months of this year. In the first nine months of this year, the consolidated state budget had a surplus of some EUR 95 million, or 0.06% of the gross domestic product (GDP), compared to a deficit of EUR 1.84 billion in the same period of 2013. The European Commission expects Romania to post a budget deficit of 2.1% of GDP this year, or some EUR 3.1 billion and forecasts that the deficit will increase to 2.8% of GDP next year, if the Government doesn’t increase taxes or if spending won’t be further reduced. editor@romania-insider.com