FinMin Citu: Budget deficit won't exceed 3.6pct of GDP and we won't increase taxes

The deficit won't exceed 3.6 per cent of the GDP and the taxes won't be increased, no matter what, Minister of Public Finance Florin Citu told private television broadcaster Realitatea Plus on Tuesday evening.

"This year, the deficit won't exceed 3.6 per cent of the GDP, no matter how things evolve, and we won't increase the taxes. These are my two upper limits that I won't cross: the deficit that cannot exceed 3.6 per cent of the GDP and no more taxes. The financial markets are not interested in the trivia news or in some Senator who wants another term in office. They only want to know if the chances that Romania pays its debt become higher or weaker. Which is why we need to be very careful when we communicate, and my message for the financial markets is that we won't exceed the deficit of 3.6 per cent of the GDP and we won't increase any taxes. The first thing I did when I took over as Minister was to ask to see the real budget deficit. And I found discovered it was above 4 per cent. The budget for last year was built on a deficit of 2.76 per cent. The financing need was built on a deficit of 2.76 per cent. Which means that we needed to cover the gap somehow, and we had two options: either to borrow money or increase the taxes and cut off expenditures," said Citu.

According to him, even if Romania borrowed almost 14 billion euros more than estimated, it did manage to save 700 million lei from interests.

He also added that the current Government borrowed money from the market, in euros, with an interest of 0.3 per cent per year, compared with the former Executive, which chose to borrow money, in the same currency, with an annual interest of 0.84 per cent.