Romania's budget for 2026 is built on three pillars: responsibility, balance and development, Finance Minister Alexandru Nazare declared on Monday in the Budget and Finance Committees of Parliament.
"The fundamental pillars on which we are building our 2026 budget are closely linked to this message. It is about responsibility towards the commitments assumed by Romania, whether it is the relationship with international financiers, the relationship with the European Commission, with the OECD, or the commitments made through the budget, all of these things are extremely important and we took them into account when drafting the 2026 budget. A second key-word for the 2026 budget is balance. Balance between fiscal rigor, the fiscal discipline that we still need to succeed in consolidating, as we have assumed, and the need for investment or social protection, the care that we show to vulnerable categories, which is included in the same draft budget in 2026. And, last but not least, perhaps most importantly, it is about the word development. Development because in the 2026 budget, we have ensured a very important investment space, talking about almost 164 billion lei. It is a generous space that, first of all, covers the need for financing and the need to complete the projects in the PNRR. Therefore, Romania's budget for 2026 - the three keywords: responsibility, balance, development," said Alexandru Nazare.
He mentioned that, from his point of view, the most important thing is that the budget for this year is realistic, fair, which takes into account the fundamental needs that Romania has to cover.
"In previous years we have not had an interest expense that increased by 10 billion, as it has this year. Interest expenses are increasing more and more rapidly. It is a fundamental need to stabilize costs, to stabilize public debt. Also, perhaps more than in any other year, we have to cover expenses related to the completion of projects in the NRRP. These represent almost 110 billion of total investments. They are much more than what was last year. It was mandatory to cover these expenses. We have expenses including for defense, we have a SAFE program that is approved and that must be covered to continue the SAFE programs. And we have covered all these things, we have integrated them into this budget, so that we can also reduce the deficit from 7.6% cash, as it was last year, to 6.2% cash in 2026. It is an important reduction. And, from my point of view, the execution of the budget for 2026 brings us back to the trajectory we should have been on, to the trajectory assumed towards the European Commission and puts us back on the right path, a normal path, a path of responsibility in which we can hope, of course, that by 2029 we can escape the excessive deficit procedure", stated the minister of finance.
According to him, the budget is built on a forecasted economic growth of 1% and an average inflation of approximately 6.5%.
"The average net salary increases by 5.5% and includes the increase in the minimum salary from July 1, 2026. Also, the investment expenses, I spoke of these expenses as a nominal amount, they exceed the threshold of 8% of GDP in the 2026 budget, well above the European average, this is the investment space that we have ensured. The nominal GDP is 2,045 billion lei (...), the average inflation is 6.5%, the cash budget deficit is 6.25%, and the public debt forecast for 2026 is 61.8%, and the interest is approaching approximately 60 billion, up by 10 billion compared to last year, due to commitments and loans taken in the past. I really wanted to include a slide in the presentation regarding the evolution of interest rates. From May last year to January this year we managed to lower interest rates on almost all maturities. They fell by almost 2% until February 27, 2026, at the beginning of the conflict in the Middle East," explained Alexandru Nazare.
The minister of finance stated that Romania started from an ESA deficit of 9.3% in 2024, for 2025 the ESA deficit is 7.8%, and this year it is expected to drop to 6%.
"Balance, we are talking here about personnel and social assistance expenses, which as you can see, nominally, remain at about the same level, 2025 and 2026, but at the same time you also observe an increase compared to 2024. Basically, these expenses increase from 388 billion in 2024 to 417 billion in 2026. Also, in public investments, we started in 2024 from 120 billion, we reached 138 in 2025 and we ensured an investment space of almost 164 billion in 2026", declared Alexandru Nazare.
Comentează