Romanian Govt Awaits Data On ‘08 Budget Before Proposing ‘09 Draft

“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%.