“The 2009 draft budget should be approved in the second part of January,” the mentioned sources said.
On Monday, Prime Minister Emil Boc confirmed the government does not have a clear assessment of the 2008 general consolidated budget and the data, along with forecasts for 2009, will be available in the first half of January.
Romania’s state budget revenue saw a 36% annual drop to 3.068 billion lei (EUR1=RON3.9964) over December 1-December 23 interval, the Ministry of Economy and Finance said.
The country’s consolidated budget revenue was down 3.37% to RON8.077 billion in the first 16 workdays of December.
The government coalition, formed of centrist Democrat Liberals and left wing Social Democrats, targets a budget deficit of maximum 1.7% of the GDP in 2009 and budget revenue of 32.5% of the GDP.
Economic growth in 2009 was estimated at 3.5%.