The 2025 budget was presented to the International Monetary Fund mission, which had no recommendations to make to the Romanian side, Finance Minister Tanczos Barna said on Tuesday."We received no recommendation on no visit, from anyone. (...) My colleagues had a purely technical discussion where we made a presentation of the budget. Period," the finance minister said after the debates on the general directions in the 2025 state budget blueprint held in the joint budget & finance committees of Parliament.Asked about the danger of Romania ending up in the 'junk' category of non-investment grade countries, after two rating agencies downgraded its outlook to negative, Barna replied: "I am convinced that Romania will not end up in junk. It's a strong signal, and this signal was received by the government and the governing coalition, and that's exactly why the budget is built on a 7% deficit. That is precisely why we were at ECOFIN last week and we committed once again to observe that calendar for reaching 3% in 7 years. That is precisely why we had a meeting with the World Bank, we met with investors, in order to convey this firm commitment of Romania: no matter the government at rule, no matter who the prime minister or the finance minister is, for 7 years Romania will stick to this plan. It is priority No. 1 for anyone who comes to government that Romania returns to a 3% deficit, that it continues investments and that we do not revert to a 3% deficit on the account of slashing investments from the budget. This parallelism can be maintained. We have European funds that support investments and we have a very firm commitment. You've seen that Mr. Bolojan has already started downsizing the staff at the institutions he leads. Reform has begun at county councils too, and we need reforms to keep spending under control," added the finance minister.An International Monetary Fund mission is in Bucharest over February 3 - 7 to review the latest economic developments and update forecasts.Currently, Romania does not have a financing agreement with the International Monetary Fund, but the financial institution annually evaluates the Romanian economy, based on Article IV consultations.As far as the rating outlook is concerned, in December 2024, rating agency Fitch announced that it had worsened Romania's outlook from stable to negative, and in January this year S&P Global made a similar announcement.
Train ticket prices will rise by nearly 10% starting December 14, when the new 2025–2026 railway timetable comes into effect in Romania, officials confirmed on Wednesday, as reported by Agerpres. The increase of 9.88% reflects the annual inflation index published by the National Institute of Statistics (INS), in line with...
Deputy prime minister Oana Gheorghiu will lead a working group tasked with reforming Romania's loss-making state-owned companies, prime minister Ilie Bolojan said in an interview with ProTV, as reported by G4media.ro. Her predecessor, Dragos Anastasiu,
Romanian prime minister Ilie Bolojan, on November 19, in an interview given to ProTV and quoted by Hotnews.ro, explained that the pension-wage cumulation ban will apply only to the so-called special pensions, namely those not based on past contributions, as opposed to all pensions as implied by Social Democrat (PSD) labour...
Statements by Romanian prime minister Ilie Bolojan about cutting by 10% the total personnel budget for all ministers and other similar contracting units, as opposed to only the central administration of the respective bodies, prompted on November 19 a radical reaction from the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and trade unions in the public sector. No […]
Romania’s Ministry of Labour unveiled for public consultations the revised law on magistrates’ pensions, and the government, in a press release, expressed its hope that the approval process, including by the Superior Council of Magistracy (CSM), will proceed expeditiously. However, CSM vice president Claudu Sandu has already publicly rejected the law as insufficient. The bill is […]
PPC, the largest power supplier in Greece, also active in Romania with distribution, production, and supply operations after it took over Enel's operations in the country, announced at the Capital Markets Day event investment plans worth EUR 3 billion over the next three years in Romania, according to Economica.net....
