Official statistics: Social protection expenditures up 10.2 pct in 2017, GDP share down 14.4 pct

Social protection expenditures increased by 10.2 percent in 2017 compared to the previous year, reaching 123.181 billion lei, but the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) share of this spending category decreased by 0.3 percentage points, to 14.4 percent, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics published on Monday. 

Expenditures on social benefits (excluding administrative and other expenses) accounted for 14.1 percent of GDP, also decreasing by 0.3 percentage points over 2016. 

"Just like in the previous years (2007-2016), social protection was mainly directed towards covering old age, sickness or health care risks with 51.8 pct and 27.9 pct, respectively of the total such spending engaged for these purposes," the cited source said. 

On the other hand, the social protection revenues amounted to 130.363 billion lei, up by 12.3 percent as compared to 2016. Their GDP share (semi-final data) was 15.2 percent, the same percentage as in the previous year.