Romania's government approves draft budget, parliamentary discussion set for February 5

Romania's government has approved the draft budget proposal for 2013. MPs can now study the draft budget ahead of a final vote to confirm the government's spending proposals for the year. Given the large parliamentary majority of the Social Liberal Union (USL), there are unlikely to be any serious challenges to the draft budget. MPs received the draft budget on January 23 and the head of the Chamber of Deputies Valeriu Zgonea said they would have until February 5 to suggest any amendments, on which date the budget will be discussed in parliament. The budget projection is based on a 2013 growth target of 1.6 percent and GDP of RON 623.3 billion (or just over EUR 142 billion at the current exchange rate), according to the Ministry of Finance. Projected figures for revenues and expenditure suggest that the budget deficit will be around 2.1 percent of GDP, some EUR 3 billion, this year. editor@romania-insider.com photo source: gov.ro