Romania is economically sustainable at this points, with 80pct of its deficit being reflected in investments, claims prime minister Marcel Ciolacu.
He gave this answer on Tuesday night during a televised broadcast with the Antena 3 private station, when asked whether there was any chance that the International Monetary Fund in Romania (IMF) suggests certain measures to the Bucharest authorities as a result of the increase in pensions, as the forum announced a visit to Romania.
„There is no such risk. Romania is economically sustainable at this point, with 80pct of its deficit reflected in investments. We would have taken measures if this weren’t the case. The IMF (…) discusses with the minister of finance, they will check the numbers, they will discuss with the prime minister and they will come up with a country rating. The most recent indicators and the most recent decisions related to the country rating was that we are stable and stay stable. We can see that euro did not increase, the central bank did not increase the money supply, we have money under the PNRR (National Recovery and Resilience Plan) that were not spent. There is a very big picture. Everybody wants that in the sensitive areas, such as pensions – and it is out of the question that someone will change the Pensions Law to take the money back from the people, this is not a possibility, we have already negotiated this with the Commission,” said Marcel Ciolacu.
He explained that the IMF makes certain country recommendations, the same as the World Bank and the European Commission, underscoring that the measures taken by the Government led to a change in the inflation.
„They are doing their job, it’s what they are paid for, we are having these meeting, we had four or maybe five meetings with the IMF. They are making some recommendations, the same as the World Bank, and the European Commission. The picture I see, when we provided state aids, when we reduced the prices for energy, when we capped the prices for basic food, is that we had a two figure inflation, about 16pct, and now it’s 5.4pct, and I believe that in the following days it will be 5.1pct, as announced by the National Institute of Statistics,” said Ciolacu.
AGERPRES
