More money for Finance Ministry

The general consolidated budget ended 2002 with 2.7% of GDP deficit, compared with 3.2% in 2001. This is one of the factors that led to a bigger-than-expected inflation drop, down to 17.8%, the Finance Ministry says. The 2002 deficit target was 3% of GDP. The Finance Ministry, however, managed to collect more money from profit tax, social security contributions (CAS), VAT and customs duties, although its income tax and excises-derived revenues were lower than expected. At the same time, expenses were kept on a tighter leash. The 2003 budget law set 2.65% of GDP as this year’s deficit target. The most significant revenue deficits were registered by the state budget (47,618.1bn ROL – revenues accounted for only 80.9% of the target), as well as by the social security budget, which ended the year with a negative balance worth 9,960bn ROL (0.7% of GDP). As in the previous years, this was triggered by a gap between spending and revenues, that is between the social security budget debt collection (88.5% of the target) and expenses (97.7%). The general consolidated budget expenses went up 25.5% in nominal terms in 2002 compared with 2001, reaching 488,780.4bn ROL. ZF