Expenditures directly related to coronavirus crisis - 3.1bn lei in 5 months

Expenditures directly related to the crisis caused by coronavirus amount to 3.1 billion lei, at 5 months, and the impact of the pandemic, in the middle of the year, is about 10 billion lei, Finance Minister Florin Citu said on Monday.

He mentioned that when the budget rectification was made, the budget deficit was doubled, from 3.7pct to 6.7pct of GDP, and the three additional percentage points came from 10 billion lei additional expenditures that were mainly related to Covid-19 and 20 billion lei lower budget revenues.

"That's what I have been saying all along. We can't completely eliminate the effect of the crisis. There's no way. We can only minimize the negative effect on the economy and we have done that, I say, very well so far. Not to have 20 billion lei as budget revenue is a tragedy," the minister specified.

He noted that June was a "pleasant surprise" because, as revenues now show, they could be better than in the same month in 2019, when there was economic growth.

Asked how much of the 20 billion lei of revenues that will be missing from the budget will represent the decrease in the first half, the minister answered that seven billion lei, and the impact of the coronavirus in the first half of the year is about 10 billion lei.

"The impact in the middle of the year [of the coronavirus] is about 10 billion lei," Florin Citu explained.

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