“We have over EUR5 billion in the Finance Ministry’s reserve but that money has been borrowed off the market for one purpose only: to be able to pay our loans on time. This reserve has been created so that Romania doesn’t remain vulnerable to urgent borrowing needs,” said Basescu.
He added the reserve needs to be kept untouched because Romania needs to be prudent amid recession woes sweeping the eurozone and not end up in the critical situation it found itself in 2009.
“Ten countries in the eurozone are already in recession. Romania needs to be cautious and not end up like in 2009, when we had to borrow money at very high interests,” Basescu said.
The head of state added public wages can be raised without tapping into reserves but by raising the 2012 budget deficit from 1.9% to 2.2% of GDP.
“The money for wage raises is included in what we’ve agreed with the IMF,” Basescu said, reminding authorities had informed the IMF of their intention to restore public wages in October 2011.