The public debt will reach 48-49% of GDP this year, prime minister and leader of the Social Democratic Party, Marcel Ciolacu, said Wednesday in eastern Buzau, stressing however that at the same time there is the highest percentage of GDP allocated to investments in Romania’s history.
The prime minister reminded that the PSD government until 2019 left the public debt at 36%, and the government led by liberal Florin Citu borrowed about RON 200 billion, and the rates for this loan were lower at the beginning.
„Most importantly is that in the first three months we have the highest percentage of GDP for investments in the history of Romania, we have 7.2%, approximately 100 billion (RON, ed. n.), about half of what Citu has borrowed. Until the first three months, we have already settled investments, made by the Romanian state, some from European funds, some from the state budget. Never in the history of Romania, if we have it at this rate (…) my opinion is that we will close the year with 9% (investments, ed. n.), first there is a delay, first you spend the money and then you start collecting it, it comes back to you through taxes and fees. We, at this moment, for this quarter, have risked this and I will not stop any investment in Romania, and wherever you look, in any commune, in any municipality, you will see investments, especially in large infrastructure and a delay was created, because first I spend a lot, then the money comes to me, I get my money back from taxes and fees. I made a bit of order, I hope that the minister (of Finance, ed. n.) will also come to me with the reorganization of ANAF (National Tax Administration Agency, ed. n.), in other words, although I made the answer long, we really do have a plan and we all do, regardless of the political colour, all our colleagues in the Government of Romania understand each other and we understood that we must have an integrated plan”, prime minister Marcel Ciolacu concluded.
AGERPRES