“We need consumption to pick up to support the economic growth, and we are looking into potential economic policies that can be applied to that extent,” Suciu said after a meeting between Prime Minister Razvan Ungureanu and central bank’s governor Mugur Isarescu.
Asked whether the proposed measures include also a reduction of the social security contributions, Suciu said the government is waiting for the first-quarter economic data before making a projection.
However, the government’s program only includes a possible increase in the public salaries, provided the economic developments allow it, he said.
Suciu said the government maintains its forecast on the 2012 economic growth unchanged at 1.5% to 2%, despite a weaker performance in the first quarter.
“Currently, there are no signs indicating the target needs to be significantly revised,” he told reporters.
Finance Minister Bogdan Dragoi said earlier Friday that the economy might have slipped back into technical recession in the first quarter, hit by bad weather. Compared with the first quarter of 2011, however, the gross domestic product increased by 1.5% to 2% in the first three months, Dragoi said.
Earlier this week, President Traian Basescu told the lawmakers they should find a solution to increase wages in the public sector to pre-austerity levels.
In 2010, the government implemented a series of measures aimed to reduce the budget deficit and increase revenues, including a 25% pay cut in the public sector and a higher sales tax.
Public salaries were since then raised by 15% and the authorities said another slight increase might be implemented sometime this year.
Additionally, the government is analyzing a possible reduction of 3% to 5% of the social security contributions paid by employers “and maybe by employees”, but only if the local and global economy will allow it, Premier Ungureanu said.