“I think we are talking about a small increase, maybe in line with inflation, maybe slightly more. [The raise] will have to be looked at in the context of how budget will perform. There’s not going to be space for a large increase, that’s very clear, but maybe to compensate for inflation, you know, 3%, 4% something like that,” said Franks Sunday on ProTV.
The IMF and Romanian authorities did not discuss a timeframe for the possible salary and pension increases.
“We didn’t discuss with them how the elections cycle fits in with the wage increases. We did tell the government that we think it would be advisable for them to respect the provisions in the fiscal responsibility law that says they should not be increasing wages and pensions within six months in the elections. I think that’s an important point of the fiscal responsibility law to try to depoliticize wage and pension increases in the future,” said Franks.
Romania’s draft budget for 2012 states pensions will be frozen in the entire year, with no mention of possible raises in the second half.