During talks with representatives of the International Monetary Fund earlier Friday, the Romanian authorities said the consolidated budget ran a deficit of over 0.8% of the gross domestic product in January through April, people familiar with the talks said.
End-March, the country’s budget deficit stood at 0.56% of GDP, which puts the April deficit at around 0.25% of GDP.
The mentioned sources said the budget deficit in April was mainly due to higher expenses with agriculture subsidies and local investments and services.
However, the budget deficit remains within the target agreed with the IMF, they said.
Under a EUR5 billion loan agreement with the IMF and the European Commission, Romania pledged to reduce its budget gap to below 3% of GDP in 2012, from around 4.4% of GDP a year earlier.
A joint IMF/EU team arrived in Bucharest April 24 to assess the country’s progress under the loan agreement and negotiate new fiscal and economic quarterly criteria.