The Romanian Government on
\nWednesday passed an emergency decree operating an adjustment of the state and
\nsocial security budgets for 2020. The adjustment takes under advisement the
\nlatest economic data in the context of the crisis caused by the COVID-19
\npandemic. Under the new budget adjustment, additional funds will go to
\nhealthcare, labor, public finance, law and public order and public works. The top
\npriority is to secure budget resources to fund the financial assistance
\nmeasures adopted by the Government in recent weeks. According to the head of
\nthe Prime Minister’s Office, Ionel Danca, the Government has tripled the funds
\nof the budget scheme guaranteeing loans for working capital and investment
\naddressed to SMEs. Enterprises can get loans at 100% subsidized interest rates,
\nzero interest rate and zero administration fees until the end of the year. On
\nFriday, SME Invest, the biggest support program addressing Romanian SMEs in
\nRomania, is due to kick off. Over 40,000 SMEs will take part in the SME Invest
\nprogram. This is the only assistance scheme backed by the European Commission
\nat present, Finance Minister Florin Citu has said. The budget adjustment has
\nalso provided the necessary funding required to pay technical unemployment
\nbenefits to all categories of employees whose employment agreements are
\nsuspended right now and for all people whose activity is based on different
\ntypes of agreements, such as self-employed persons, individual enterprises or
\nother types of professionals, as stipulated by the Civil Code. The healthcare
\nsector was allotted funding both to ensure the necessary amount of medical and
\nsanitary materials and equipment, needed to combat the pandemic, as well as to
\npay health insurance benefits and other benefits such as medical leaves, Ionel
\nDanca explained. The Romanian official said the budget adjustment factored in
\nall the macroeconomic data submitted by the National Commission for Strategy
\nand Forecast. Ionel Danca:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
According to data issued by
\nthe National Commission for Strategy and Forecast, the economy will shrink by
\n1.9% compared to the original economic growth forecast of 4.1%, based on which
\nthe state budget was designed. This means the GDP will shrink by as much as 6%
\nthis year. Accordingly, budget allocations were adjusted to reflect the new
\ndata regarding the volume of economic activity and estimate revenues for this
\nyear, while also taking into account the Government’s top priority during this
\nperiod, which is to ensure the necessary resources to support sanitary efforts
\naimed at preventing the pandemic from spreading and at the same time to limit
\nthe negative economic and social effects of this crisis. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Ionel Danca went on to say
\nthat the budget allotted to efforts aimed at combating the pandemic now stands
\nat 3% of the GDP. Previously Finance Minister Florin Citu said the Government
\nis working on a set of major economic recovery measures which will be made
\npublic after the state of emergency is lifted. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
(Translated by V. Palcu)<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Romanian Government has disbursed additional funds to the sectors affected by the coronavirus crisis<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":104,"featured_media":85441,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[29402,35374,35391,39915],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-85440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news","tag-budget-adjustment","tag-covid-19","tag-florin-citu","tag-ionel-danca"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n