Romania is reaffirming its commitment to meeting its government deficit of 7% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2025 while continuing this trajectory in the coming years, as provided for in the National Medium-Term Budgetary-Structural Plan agreed on with the European Commission.

These clarifications come after the publication of Eurostat data on the government deficit in the European Union member states, according to which Romania had the highest government deficit in 2024,, of 9.3% of GDP.

„Romania’s government deficit calculated according to the national cash methodology was, in 2024, 8.65% of GDP, which is RON 152.72 billion. The ESA budget deficit, according to official Eurostat data, published on April 22, 2025, was 9.3% of GDP at the end of last year. The deficit was calculated in the accrual reporting system, defined in the European System of Accounts (ESA 2010), as well as in the regulations issued in application of the Treaty establishing the European Union. Thus, the difference between the two approaches is the result of the application of different estimation methodologies,” according to the Romanian Finance Ministry.

Negative influences in the calculation of the ESA deficit were mainly the amounts due and unpaid at the end of the year by the public sector, which gave expenditures higher by RON 9.1 billion, as well as the transposition of interest (-9.6 RON billion) from the cash base to the accrual base depending on the payment terms.

„We want to specify that it is not the first time when in Romania differences could be observed between the ESA deficit and the cash deficit. Even in this context, Romania is reaffirming its commitment to meeting the deficit of 7% of GDP in 2025 while continuing this trajectory in the coming years, as provided for in the National Medium-Term Budgetary-Structural Plan agreed on with the European Commission.”

According to data published on Tuesday by the European Statistical Office (Eurostat), the share of the government deficit in GDP fell in the EU from 3.5% to 3.2%. In 2024, all EU member states except Denmark (4.5%), Ireland and Cyprus (both with 4.3%), Greece (1.3%), Luxembourg (1%) and Portugal (0.7%) reported deficits. The highest deficits were recorded in Romania (- 9.3% of GDP), Poland (- 6.6% of GDP), France (- 5.8% of GDP) and Slovakia ( – 5.3% of GDP). 12 EU member countries had deficits equal to or greater than 3% of GDP.

AGERPRES