Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan estimates that the budget deficit cannot be lowered below 8% of GDP this year and that in 2026 it should reach around 6%.

„In the autumn of this year, we are basically evaluating that we will not be able to drop it below 8% by the end of the year. These are the data at the moment. It depends on the measures that are still taken, it depends on what happens with the phasing of some investments. But this year the impact of the measures that have been adopted is not relevant. Next year we should drop the deficit as close as possible to 6%, so that we are in a situation where operating expenses begin to not grow much more than revenues”, Ilie Bolojan told Euronews on Thursday.

He noted that in recent years the gap between revenues and expenditures has become increasingly large and that he wants this negative dynamics to be „stopped” next year. It is important that deficits decrease so that Romania’s debts do not increase, he stressed.

„It is very important that we move on a trend in which our deficits decrease, so that we can stabilize our debt. Every year, by contracting even larger loans, Romania’s debt increases and the amounts we pay in interest will be higher and higher. Hypothetically, it is not a very big problem if you have a deficit, as long as you can finance your deficit. Romania finances its deficit, but as the amounts increase, the deficit is higher and higher. The cost of financing becomes higher and higher, until it becomes unbearable. We must not end up in this situation. If at some point there is a disruption on the international market, you practically enter into a payment capacity, which means some very high costs”, explained Bolojan.

The prime minister also highlighted that Romania must have „fiscal discipline” so that money is no longer wasted, conditions are created for economic development and energy production to increase.

He stressed that Romania has a „very large” agricultural potential, but unlike Hungary or Poland, which have supported food processing, Romania has not invested in this area.

„We are in a situation where we have some very large deficits in the area of agri-food products, which is abnormal for a country like Romania, with this potential. Then, a second important direction is to encourage the agri-food industry, to support our exports, to support Romanian products, in general, in such a way as to balance our trade balance,” he added.

The head of the Government advocated attracting foreign investments, noting that their value has reached 5 billion euros per year, compared to 10-11 billion euros two-three years ago.

„There are high-tech areas, artificial intelligence areas, data centers, that we cannot do from Romania, because we do not have the capabilities. We must support this technology transfer by encouraging foreign and Romanian investments, at the same time. Let’s send more people into the economy. If we have no one to work with – because this is a reality – we no longer have to give a year of unemployment benefits, if Germany grants six months of unemployment benefits and Hungary – three months, for example. We must bring more people into the market. We must eliminate and reduce as much as possible the possibilities of early retirement, at the ages of 48-50, support the increase in the retirement age as close to the standard age as possible – not over 65 years old – so that we have more people in the economy, because otherwise there is no one to pays the pensions”, the prime minister also said. AGERPRES