Isărescu: Money from NBR's reserve cannot be used to pay pensions

The Romanian state needs to cut the budget deficit – especially the social security budget, otherwise it risks not being able to borrow any more, while the notion that money from the reserve of the NBR (National Bank of Romania) should be used to sustain public spending is outright dangerous, was the conclusion of a seminar organised at the National Bank, where governor Mugur Isărescu almost monopolised the talks that extended over three hours.

From the very beginning of the debate, the governor announced that the topic of the seminar – “Romania’s forex and gold reserves. Sources and purposes” has been chosen in order to have an analysis of the market at a time when the “public is bombarded with very interesting news items, some of which are quite amusing” on the NBR’s funds.
“The main purpose (of keeping international reserves i.e.) is to see the state’s current payments met. The state’s external obligations, wherever they may have originated from, are not easy to pay,” Isărescu says.
The Governor said the main role of keeping international reserves is to give the state credibility as to its ability to repay its obligations on time. Romania has almost 32 billion euros in international reserve, 3.3 billion euros of which are the value of the 103 tonnes of gold.