The real test of Romania's economic leadership in 2026 is its ability to maintain the fiscal trajectory and agreed deficit targets, Finance Minister Alexandru Nazare said on Wednesday at "The Economist Romania Government Roundtable" regional conference.
"I believe that the real test of Romania's economic leadership in 2026 is the ability to maintain the fiscal trajectory and agreed deficit targets, while at the same time protecting citizens and companies from major shocks, without falling once again into the trap of populism. At the same time, it is essential to advance the objective of OECD accession this year, to properly implement the National Recovery and Resilience Plan in its final year, to increase attractiveness for foreign direct investment and to maintain credibility on external markets. These are the core elements of the credibility test for Romania and they are by no means easy to achieve," Alexandru Nazare said.
He mentioned that the difficulty is amplified by the fact that Romania is not only facing an internal crisis, such as last year's fiscal-budgetary crisis generated by its own decisions, but also a compounded crisis, namely the energy crisis, which is global and European in nature, with origins in the conflict in the Middle East.
The Finance Minister said that, over the past 10 months, Romania has managed to reduce the deficit, increase investment, renegotiate the recovery plan, maintain its credit rating and make significant progress in the OECD accession process.
"At the same time, we must be aware that without exiting the excessive deficit procedure we cannot speak about joining the euro area. Therefore, we must maintain fiscal discipline and the established trajectory, and this objective requires sustained commitment from the entire political class, not only in the short term but for the next four to five years. It is a major effort, but an essential one," Alexandru Nazare said.
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