Minister Bolos about the risk that the deficit will increase

There is the risk that the deficit gets greater than 6.9% of the GDP and this comes from the perspective of the revenues included in the budget on the digitisation component and on the tax amnesty component, stated on Monday the minister of finances, Marcel Bolos.   'I don't think we can guarantee 100% these revenues will be fully collected in the budget. If this risk, partially or to a large extent comes true, then our target of 6.9% is affected, but we, together  with ANAF are doing all the necessary diligence so that the revenues, as planned and approved in the government are realized ' said Marcel Bolos, answering the journalists' questions in the conference at the end of the government meeting.   Asked what could be the most somber scenario as regards the budget deficit and what it could get at, Bolos said that we should expect and see if there is any danger for the deficit to surpass the target of 6.94% and then have an analysis of the data.   'For the moment we presented the European Commission our scenario, we discussed the fact that 2025, 2026, 2027 we will have a level of the investment budget over 150 billion lei, namely approximately 8.1% of GDP. So, this is the reality and we have to decide. Surely we need to take care of what the evolution of the budget deficit may mean and the sustainability of the public finances, but this does not mean that we have to compromise the future, to give up our investment projects. What would Romania look like without these investment projects which are expected by all Romanians and which influence Romania's competitiveness at European level? And what would Romania look like without our continuing our efforts to stimulate investors' interest? ' said Marcel Bolos.   He explained that the two types of public and private investments are hand in hand, having the so-called synergic effect and determine Romania's sustainable development on a long term.   The Fiscal Council published on Monday Opinion on the project of the first correction of general consolidated budget for this year, where it is shown that the cash budget deficit will be around 8% of GDP in 2024 and the fact that other seven countries have entered the procedure of excessive imbalance is not a confort to the Romanian authorities.   ' The execution of the public budget illustrated faults in its construction for this year, among which a budget deficit initially estimated at 5% of GDP. The Fiscal Council mentioned in the evaluation of the budget draft for 2024 the lack of realistm in the budget deficit. Romania has one of the highest budget deficits in the EU, and the fact that other seven countries got under the incidence of the excessive imbalance procedure should not be a confort for our authorities. Romania suffers from the syndrome ' of twin deficits' with huge foreign imbalance ( commercial balance and current account), considerable financing through foreign loans. Romania has the highest deficit of current account as share in the GDP among the countries in Centre and Eastern Europe and it is not part of the euro zone, which means foreign currency risk' the document says. (Photo:https://gov.ro/)