FinMin Nazare: Budget rectification brings the state budget into realistic projection area

The budget rectification adopted on Wednesday brings the state budget into a realistic projection area, the included deficit target is 8.4%, and the Gross Domestic Product considered is 1,902 billion lei, the Minister of Finance Alexandru Nazare told the briefing at the end of the Government meeting."It is a very important, long-awaited, discussed moment - the budget rectification. The budget rectification adopted this evening by the Romanian Government brings the state budget into a realistic projection area, in the sense that we have analyzed all the credit authorizing officers, the expenditure area and the revenue area, so that these expenses and revenues are projected as realistically as possible, because we need, through the message that we transmit once the rectification is adopted, to transmit to both Romanians, as well as to the markets and investors, that we are returning to an area of seriousness and financial discipline and are changing the attitude related to the way we treat budgets. It was a necessary and long-awaited message", said the minister of finance.He emphasized that the negotiation carried out in the last month and a half, related to the deficit target, was discussed a lot and was in public attention. The rectification approved by the Government provides for a deficit target of 8.4%, respectively a financing requirement of 159 billion lei.According to Nazare, the Government has set the goal of maintaining a significant level of investments, which exceeds 150 billion lei."We set out to regulate the amounts for the loan area, especially the PNRR, for key ministries that had exhausted these very important budget chapters for investments. Here we are discussing the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Economy, the Ministry of Environment and the Ministry of Development. All these four ministries no longer had amounts available for the PNRR loan area. Through this rectification, we have regulated all these problems. There are around five billion that are destined for this area. Why is it important? Because we need to enter into a logic of accelerating the absorption of the PNRR, and this money is important for achieving the targets of the PNRR. We are at the end of the discussion with the last memoranda related to the PNRR and we are heading in a straight line towards approving the renegotiation of the PNRR", explained Nazare.The finance minister added that the GDP expected at the beginning of the year, of 1,912 billion, is being revised to 1,902 billion lei, because economic growth will not be 2.5%, but is projected at 0.6%.He added that the coverage of interest-related amounts, which increased at an accelerated rate in the first part of the year, could not be omitted. "They amount to almost 54 billion, so the amount of interest coverage is almost 12 billion", Nazare mentioned.He also mentioned that approximately two-thirds of the added amounts refer to the essential spending area, and the remaining expenses refer to covering investment needs, especially in the PNRR area, where according to assessments at the beginning of the year, the amounts were exhausted in August.