RSS
General consolidated budget deficit down to 0.24 of GDP January through May
The general consolidated budget deficit dropped to 0.24 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) January through May this year, according to the budget execution data published on the website of the Ministry of Public Finances.
Last year, the general consolidated budget posted a deficit of 1.04 per cent of the GDP for the same time span. In the first four months of 2014, the deficit accounted for 0.28 per cent of the GDP.
According to the Ministry of Finances, the fiscal consolidation reached 0.8 per cent of the GDP in January-May this year, compared with the same interval last year, while the deficit saw a drop by 5 billion lei, which allowed it to fit within the deficit target for overall 2014.
The primary surplus recorded in end-May 2014 was 0.45 per cent of the GDP, compared with a primary deficit of 0.27 per cent of the GDP in the same interval last year.
General consolidated budget revenues totalled 84.1 billion lei, representing 12.7 per cent of the GDP, being 3.7 per cent higher in minimal terms against the same time span in 2013.
Collections from contributions to social security (plus 1.02 billion lei), property taxes (+901.2 million lei), excises (+814.9 million lei), the profit tax (+604.2 million lei) and the value-added tax (+277 million lei) all recorded increases.
Growth recorded in comparison with figures posted in the previous year were also recorded at local level in the case of the property tax, by 5.3 per cent, taxes on use of commodities, by 4.6 per cent and non-fiscal revenues, by 2.1 per cent.
The amounts reimbursed by the European Union decreased 16 per cent percent compared with the same period of last year. According to the MFP, the general consolidated budget only included such amounts reimbursed for projects with public institutions as beneficiaries.
The general consolidated budget expenditure was worth 85.65 billion lei, having decreased in nominal terms by 2.3 per cent compared with the same time span last year, and also in real terms, by 1 per cent of the GDP.
The Romanian authorities and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) set the budget deficit target at 2.2 per cent of the GDP, both on a cash-flow basis and calculated based on the EU's ESA methodology. Romania ended last year with a general consolidated budget deficit of 2.5 per cent of the GDP.