Investments increased in 2025
The Romanian Finance Minister Alexandru Nazare is going to Brussels to discuss the budget, and he is expected to support a deficit of 6.2% of the GDP for 2026.
Mihai Pelin, 27.01.2026, 13:50
The public administration reform project and the package of measures for economic recovery requested by the Social Democrats were among the topics discussed during the last meeting of the governing coalition in Bucharest. The ruling parties – The National Liberal Party (PNL), the Social Democratic Party (PSD), Save Romania Union (USR) and the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania (UDMR) – have not reached a consensus on the economic recovery measures. If so far they have agreed that the third package that the Ilie Bolojan government wants to assume in Parliament should also include, alongside the public administration reform, economic recovery measures, the Liberals and USR have come up with the idea of separating the two projects, according to some political sources, although this economic recovery package is also considered essential for the development of the national economy.
The idea was categorically rejected by the Social Democrat leader, Sorin Grindeanu, and also by the leader of the UDMR Kelemen Hunor, who argued that Romania needs economic recovery measures, especially after so many months of talks about cuts, restructuring, taxation and tax increases. The budget bill for this year was also on the agenda of the discussions. The government’s objective is to build a balanced budget, which should support the development of local communities, in parallel with fiscal-budgetary consolidation and continuing efforts to reduce the budget deficit, said the Deputy Prime Minister Tánczos Barna.
The Finance Minister Alexandru Nazare is to travel to Brussels on Wednesday to discuss this important project with the European Commission. The 2026 budget will be one of investments – he said – which will amount to over 10 billion Euros from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), as well as another 10 billion Euros from cohesion and agricultural funds. The estimated Gross Domestic Product will be around 2,045 billion lei (about 400 billion Euros), and the deficit target for this year is around 6%, with economic growth of around 1%, the finance minister said.
Alexandru Nazare expressed his hope that by absorbing the European money that Romania has at its disposal and by adopting economic measures, growth can be higher. The budget for this year will be based on the budget execution of the ministries from the previous year, he explained, also specifying that for this year they did not take into account any hypothesis of an increase in the standard VAT rate or for the hospitality industry. He also said that investments increased last year, compared to 2024, by approximately 16% and reached 7.2% of the GDP and recalled, at the same time, that the payment mechanism for co-financing projects with European funds was made more flexible. On the other hand, the minister stressed the need to attract large investors and specified that Romania’s economic ambition must be higher, with a clear focus on regional positioning. The Liberal Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan wants this year’s budget to be adopted in the second half of February. (LS)
