RSS
Romania's budget, under pressure, must fall within 7 pct deficit agreed with EC
Romania's budget is under a lot of pressure at the moment, due to the need to fall within that 7 percent deficit agreed with the European Commission, Deputy Prime Minister Dan Barna told on Monday a press conference dedicated to the 10th anniversary of Fondul Proprietatea (FP)'s listing on the local capital market.
"The pandemic crisis has put a lot of pressure on many areas of the economy, and Romania's budget is under a lot of pressure at the moment due to the need to fall within that 7 percent deficit agreed with the European Commission. And from this perspective, the capital market can be a much-needed tool and partner. I am currently working with my team and colleagues in the Government on the Reconstruction and Resilience Plan that Romania will propose to the European Commission. We are talking about 30 million euros that will be infused into Romania's capital market. From this perspective, in order to emerge from the crisis when the vaccination campaign has the expected success and we enter into a logic of economic reconstruction, the role of the Bucharest Stock Exchange and the capital market in the broadest sense is one that I see as fundamental," Barna said.
According to him, the current government sees the partnership with the capital market as a very concrete priority.
"This Government needs to compensate for the violently anti-market economy government of the PSD [the Social Democratic Party] in recent years which has conveyed a negative message internationally, which means investors who had been eyeing Romania. Over the last four years since being involved in major-league politics I had many meetings with important international investors who explained to me what a great opportunity the Romanian market is, what benefits we have through the geographical position, the type of economy, the size of the country, through the fact that we are members of the European Union and how, nevertheless, we do not use these opportunities in the capital market area due to a way of seeing things significantly lagging behind. Or, this current coalition government that is leading Romania comes with a new point of view in which the partnership with the capital market, the stake of developing the capital market, the partnership with the Stock Exchange represent a priority, not formal and declarative, but a very concrete one," said Deputy Prime Minister Barna.
He added that as long as Romania does not convey a message of real support to the capital market at Government level, the economic prospects "remain limited or marginally related to one opportunity or another".
A budget proposal for 2021 would be finished on Monday, in order to be analyzed, after discussions with authorizing officers, Prime Minister Florin Citu declared on Monday, at the Parliament, specifying that the nominal GDP will be "a little larger than last year".
Regarding the budget's priorities for 2021, the Prime Minister highlighted that they were announced since last year and they are referring to "investments and health".
"We are still in a pandemic, we did not escape the pandemic and to this we added the vaccination campaign, additional resources for the payment of the vaccine, as well as supporting the vaccination campaign, so the budget started from here," Citu said.