Earlier Friday, Basescu was caught on camera by Realitatea TV reporters while talking to businessman George Constantin Paunescu on the inflation issue.
“But if we lower to (…) the inflation, we doom the population,” were Basescu’s words to Paunescu.
The head of state contacted Realitatea TV reporters by phone and accused them of trying to scare the citizens.
“Just so you won’t be able to make exaggerate speculations, I will tell you that in the discussion I had with Mr. Paunescu I was referring to the fact that a high inflation would cause great damage to the population. Maybe you understand that is one thing to earn a salary of RON500, for example, while the euro is at RON3.50, and another thing to earn RON500 when the euro reaches RON4.30. Basically, this was what we’ve talked about,” Basescu told Realitatea TV.
“The population will suffer and will be seriously hurt by a strong depreciation, because part of the food is imported. And you don’t have to speculate on the matter. This is a fact any economist, even an engineer such myself, can tell you (…),” Basescu mentioned.