Prime Minister Sorin Grindeanu said on Sunday evening on Romania TV that the budget deficit in 2017 will fall within the set target of 3%, the economic growth will exceed 5%, GDP will exceed 800 billion lei and about 180,000 new jobs will be created.
This data forecast includes the measures adopted by the Government in last week’s meeting and Prime Minister Grindeanu said that he will meet all commitments Romania took as a NATO member.
„Regarding the macroeconomic framework, we are talking about a GDP of 815 billion in 2017, 5.2% economic growth, 1.4% inflation and about 180,000 new jobs. We forecast revenues (…) of 253.1 billion for 2017 and expenditures of 277.2 billion. There is a difference of 24.1% between revenues and expenditure, which means a deficit below 3%, namely 2.95%,” said Prime Minister Sorin Grindeanu.
He also emphasized that this forecast „is in line with the government programme voted by people.” „These are details updated with the measures taken a week ago, data provided by the National Prognosis Commission. Based on these data, we have revenues and expenditure,” explained Sorin Grindeanu.
Prime Minister also underlined that Romania’s commitments taken as a NATO member must be met, namely that 2% of GDP is allocated to the army and showed that keeping the commitments „is a thing that will not be negotiated.”
„These are things that we do not and shall not negotiate. There are things that we, as a country, no matter who leads the Government, who is the President or the Minister of Finance, must respect. This is the way for us to prove reliability and be considered serious partners. If we change from one month to another or from one government to another, we will not be respected, „said Prime Minister Sorin Grindeanu on Romania TV.
The Prime Minister has not referred to the PSD’s plan to cut the budgets of Parliament, SRI, SIE, the Presidency and the Court of Auditors, announced by the PSD President Liviu Dragnea.
Under the existing procedures, the Senate and Chamber of Deputies are institutions that vote for their own budget, the 20% decrease announced by Liviu Dragnea being actually the result of decreasing the MPs number in the current legislature.
Every year, SRI and SIE submit to the Government their draft budgets which are usually approved without any problem by the Parliament. The intelligence services classify the budget details and invoke the „national security” when reducing the budget might be discussed.
„Clear victims” of the possible budget cuts for the institutions listed by Liviu Dragnea are the Presidential Administration and the Court of Auditors, which have no legal tools available to impose the draft budget submitted to the Government and Parliament.
