The Governernment has 2 billion euros left for spending in the last month of the year, after the deficit went up to 5.2% of GDP eleven months into the year, 1.6% below the 6.8% target agreed upon with the IMF.
Beyond the question why the need to cut wages if the Government
has 2 billion euros left in December, another one comes up: how
will this money be spent, since experience shows that the “gift
giving month” is a month of governmental squandering?
In recent years, the spending of every government doubled in the
last month of the year compared with the average of the previous
months, with local authorities usually to blame for it. Will it
happen again in 2010? Finance Minister Gheorghe Ialomițianu hopes
it will not. The chairman of the Businesspeople Association of
Romania Florin Pogonaru feels “the surplus” should go towards
payment of the state’s arrears to private companies, but has his
doubts about it actually happening.