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FinMin Citu: Romania's public debt growth at 7 pct this year, as to 20 percentage points for EU overall
The EU's public debt will grow on average by 20 percentage points in 2020, whereas Romania's government debt will increase by only 7 percentage points, Minister of Public Finance Florin Citu wrote on Facebook.
The FinMin reiterates that he took over "a destroyed economy", with overdue bills amounting to approximately 30 billion lei and with due debts of approximately 50 billion lei.
"However, Romania is different. Romania set off with a major handicap. In recent years it was run by a gang of criminals, and unfortunately we have to pay for their embezzlements. We took over a destroyed economy, with unpaid bills worth about 30 billion lei (!!!) and with due debts of about 50 billion lei (10 billion lei in a few days), that is, we started 2020 with an 80-bln lei budget hole. Under these circumstances, we managed the impossible," Florin Citu wrote.
He also notes that Romania has "a substantial and one of the most efficient economy supporting packages," the smallest budget deficit growth in the EU and one of the smallest increases in the national public debt in EU.
"In Romania we managed: to put in place a substantial and one of the most efficient economy supporting packages, about 7 percent of GDP - money that was not in the budget at the beginning of the year; to have the smallest budget deficit growth in the EU; one of the smallest public debt increases in the EU. Of course the #fakenews TV channels/sites never asked how did the socialist government pile up these debts while the rest of the world was having a budget surplus. Of course not. A large part of this money ended up in the pockets of the PSD mouthpieces, you know very well who they are. Just as I promised, and as I have done so far, I will continue to expose all the illegalities committed in recent years by Dragnea, Ciolacu, Grindeanu aka OUG13, Olguta Vasilescu etc. And of course, just as until now, all the control reports are going to the public institutions responsible for investigating misuse of public money," Florin Citu also specified.
He also said that consumption in Romania looks good, given the circumstances, and to keep it that way, in an economy that contracts by 4% this year, at the level of an increase by 4% in 2019, is ok for the time being.
"The average net income on in Romania this year increased in August from August 2019 by 7.5%. At the same time, if we look at unemployment, compared with its level in the 2009 crisis, we are not there. Unemployment has not risen that much. We look at the number of contracts and again that has not happened. Furloughed people have returned to work and I see that reflected in how many people have been paid furlough money and then for how many people we have paid the 41.5% of their pay. Consumption looks good, given the circumstances. We have to keep in mind that we are going through the hardest period of the last hundred years and with the limited resources we had we managed to keep the consumption at the level of last year. Keeping consumption up in an economy that contracts by 4%, let's say, this year, at the level of an economy that increased by 4%, last year, I say it is ok, for the time being," Citu told the annual conference of the Romanian Brewers Association.
The Romanian Brewers Association organised on Wednesday the annual event of the local beer industry under the slogan "Beer honours Romania".