The budget deficit remains significantly high
Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan announced that Romania's budget deficit will exceed 8% at the end of this year, after exceeding 9% last year
Daniela Budu, 17.09.2025, 13:50
Romania cannot end this year with a budget deficit below 8% because many of the measures taken by the government will only apply as of January 1 and because there are investment contracts that cannot be renounced, Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan said in an interview with a private television station. He also pointed out that the current deficit is higher than previously announced.
Ilie Bolojan: “We cannot end this year with a deficit below 8% despite all the measures we have taken. There are two reasons for this. On the one hand, because these measures were taken at the beginning of the second half of the year, they only have an effect on the last four months of the year, some of them, while others apply from January 1. On the other hand, we have some very large investment contracts in progress that we cannot stop.”
The prime minister pointed out that when revenues increase, spending must be reduced, and if public spending does not decrease, then all the additional revenues collected through the new measures will be lost. He recalled that an important direction is the fight against tax evasion, and here he referred mainly to ANAF, which must combat tax evasion in such a way that, according to the Prime Minister, every person who earns money in Romania pays a contribution to the state budget. The prime minister announced that next week he will discuss Romania’s loans and budget deficit with European officials in Brussels.
On the same private television station, President Nicuşor Dan acknowledged that inflation will affect the purchasing power of the population, but that ignoring the deficit would have generated even higher inflation. The fact that we have an inflation rate that will reach 10% means that people will be able to buy 10% less, added the head of state.
Nicuşor Dan: “It must be said that there was not really an alternative to this issue, i.e. ignoring the deficit would have meant that the financial markets would no longer have wanted to lend to Romania and inflation would have been even higher. These measures affected many people in Romania. We need to think about each one individually. I would have done some things differently. Measures had to be taken quickly, so in such situations you do what you can. Overall, they were necessary because otherwise things would have been even worse, meaning inflation would have been even higher than it is now. We can see the light at the end of the tunnel, which is the end of 2026. Finally, we will stabilize the deficit.”
The head of state explained that, once the deficit stabilises, Romania will be able to borrow more cheaply on international markets. At the same time, Nicușor Dan said that in 2026 the country will join the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which means that Romania will be attractive to foreign companies looking to invest. In 2027, we will start extracting gas from the Black Sea and will be very interesting from an energy perspective and for industries that rely on it, added the head of state. And in 2028, he says, Romania will complete the motorway linking the port of Constanța (on the Black Sea) to Western Europe. (MI)
