“A 3% deficit (2.9% estimated by the Finance Ministry) leaves no more room for a rise in budget deficit when the economic growth slows down. Here comes the confusion, and not only in Romania, but across Europe as well: 3% is a budget deficit representative for crisis periods,” Lazea told a press conference Wednesday.
Lazea pointed out that in normal times, a country must keep a budget deficit target below 1% or even close to zero, under the Maastricht Treaty.
Thus, in case of crisis, a state can afford to have a budget deficit of up to 3%.
In June, Finance Minister Eugen Teodorovici said the Romanian government plans to keep the budget deficit target at around 1.2% of the GDP in 2016, as agreed with the international financial institutions, if it manages to take measures meant to offset the impact of the Tax Code on the budget next year.
“On the one hand, the plan is to observe all undertaken measures by September, especially the ones targeting structural reforms and, when drafting the budget, to keep the budget deficit of 1.2%, within the agreed terms, with a 0.5% temporary deviation,” Teodorovici stated at that time.