site.btaRomania's Transport Minister: If We Don't Reduce Our Budget Deficit, We Risk EU Funds Being Cut Off

Romania cannot afford to miss the budget deficit reduction target due to the risk of EU funds being stopped, Transport Minister Sorin Grindeanu said in an interview with Digi24.

"In the Ministry of Transport, all projects are done with European money and in such a scenario all work would stop. Companies do not work without being paid," Grindeanu warned, giving the example of Hungary, which has reached a similar situation. He informed that in the last two years his ministry has almost doubled its budget.

"At the end of 2021 we had RON 14 billion, now we have almost RON 30 billion. There are many projects and contracts signed. All these large investments are from EU funds," he added. 

He reiterated the warning of Finance Minister Marcel Bolos that there is a risk that at the end of the year the institutions in Romania will make a lot of spending and this will lead to a sudden increase in the budget deficit. 

At the end of September, data from Romania's finance ministry showed that Romania's total consolidated budget deficit had reached 2.65% of gross domestic product (GDP) after the first eight months of the year, amounting to RON 42.19 billion (EUR 1 = RON 4.97) compared to RON 32.98 billion, or 2.34% of GDP, in the first eight months of 2022.

A few days before, an International Monetary Fund delegation visited Bucharest to look at the financial and economic situation at the national level.

Romania risks losing EUR 75 billion if it does not reduce its budget deficit and take additional measures to fight tax evasion, it emerged after a meeting between IMF representatives and Finance Minister Bolos.