Romania’s state budget sees surplus of 0.1-0.2% of the GDP in Q1, official says

The state budget registered a surplus of 0.1-0.2 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the first three months of the year, Economy and Finance Minister Varujan Vosganian said.

The government this year targets a budget deficit of 2.8 percent of the GDP, up against last year’s 2.4 percent. Vosganian already drafted a plan to cut public expenditures, in a move to keep the budget deficit under control.

On March 5, the government approved the first state budget rectification, this amounting to 1.1 billion euros. The Cabinet cut expenditures concerning the endowment of some public institutions and lowered the budgets of some ministries.

Yet, analysts voiced skepticism regarding the government’s plans and said revenues are overrated within the budget and expenditures cannot be reduced very much within an electoral year.

Budget revenues upped 51.1 percent year-on-year in the first quarter, to 37.05 billion lei (10 billion euros). These account for 7.8 percent of Romania’s 2008 GDP, estimated at 475 billion lei.

NewsIn