Romania's Hungarian Minority Party Lawmakers To Vote For 2010 Budget – Party Leader

"We'll vote in favor of the budget, whether we like it or not. It is a crisis budget, but we must be aware of the fact the country needs this kind of budget. Drastic measures are required, so we will vote for the budget and then will see how we will manage the social protection issue, so as to protect those in need, the poor," Marko said.

The Romanian Parliament's two chambers convene Monday in extraordinary plenary meeting to debate the draft state budget and the social security budget for 2010, which were approved by the Parliament's budget-finance committees over the weekend.

The Romanian Government approved on December 23, 2009 the draft 2010 state budget, which should be adopted by mid-January to unblock new disbursements from a EUR20 billion multilateral loan package that were halted over political turmoil following the collapse of the country's government in October.

The country's draft budget considers economic growth of 1.3% of GDP and an inflation rate of 3.7%. In 2009, the Romanian economy is estimated to contract by around 7%, while the annual inflation is predicted at 4.5% end-December.

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