UDMR (Democratic Union of Hungarians of Romania) chair Kelemen Hunor on Monday evening told Digi 24 private television broadcaster that last year the government spent a lot of money from the budget because it was an election year and they did not even win the elections.
Kelemen Hunor was asked on Digi 24 how serious the economic situation of our country is in the context in which the interim president, Ilie Bolojan, was talking about the possibility of an economic recession and a repeat of the situation from the 2008-2009 crisis, when the incomes of all public sector employees was cut.
„We will definitely not reach those measures and I hope that there will be no recession either. On the other hand, there is a concern not only here, but all over Europe and beyond, because we are interconnected. (…) It now depends on customs duties, on the one hand, on the recession or the slowdown in economic growth in Germany, in the automotive industry, for example, in everything that concerns the energy system and energy production, both renewable and from fossil resources. So all these issues have an influence on Romania. (…) We have a very large deficit, we also have a relatively large increase in debt. Last year they spent an enormous amount of money, 30 billion, the deficit is a lot for Romania that needs to be financed and we need to reduce the deficit to 7%, which is the target in the budget,” said Kelemen Hunor.
He added that the large expenditures were made because it was an election year and the government „wanted to be seen favorably by the people.”
„Pensions have increased, salaries have increased, that’s good, but if there is no growth in the economy, if there is no growth in income, then a lot of expenses remain fixed expenses that appear every year. They also spent on investments, but the budget deficit has far exceeded the forecast. That means that you actually had more expenses than income. Why did they do that? It was an election year, that’s the explanation. We shouldn’t shy away from this statement. They were wrong. Now, let me say further, they didn’t win the elections either,” said the UDMR leader.
AGERPRES
