Budget deficit: 0.12% of GDP

The general consolidated budget for the third quarter witnessed a 449.8 million RON (133m euros) deficit accounting for 0.12% of GDP. The financial figures resulted from revenues worth 25.91 billion RON (7.7 billion euros) and expenses worth 26.36 billion RON (7.8 billion euros).
In the first two months of the year, the consolidated budget saw a surplus of 0.12% of GDP, with the state budget ending this period with losses. The situation was compensated by the surplus income derived from local budgets and from pension insurance.
Revenues accounted for 6.8% of GDP at the end of March, close to the 6.9% accounted for by expenditures.
On March 31, the value added tax had brought 4.87 billion RON to the budget, and sums collected from excises totalled 2.49 billion RON.
Sums collected from the profit tax and from the income and wage tax totalled 2.03 billion RON, and 3.03 billion RON respectively.
Sums collected from social security contributions totalled 8.81 billion RON.
The highest values in terms of expenditures were reported on the “Transfers” segment – 13.38 billion RON and on the “Social Security” segment – 9.06 billion RON.
The state budget saw a 4.22 billion RON deficit resulting from the gap between revenues (8.38 billion RON) and expenditures (12.6 billion RON).
As for local budgets, the growth rate of revenues exceeded the rate of expenditures by a large margin, with the surplus exceeding 2.3 billion RON.
The Minister of Economy and Finance, Varujan Vosganian, stated at the beginning of the month that the general consolidated budget had reported a surplus estimated to be 0.3% of the GDP. At the same time, he announced a decline in the state budget deficit from 1.5% in the first quarter to 0.8% at the end of April.
According to sources from the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the institution will propose a budget adjustment, which would involve the redistribution of 1.2 billion euros, funds not spent by the ministries in the first quarter of the year. Vosganian himself announced this could take place in May, if sums collected for the national budget see a positive development.