Prime Minister Victor Ponta on Tuesday asked the members of the Cabinet to draw up the draft budget for 2015 until the arrival of the delegation of the European Commission (EC), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB) in Romania. “I want to continue to do our job, as long as we have the support of the Parliament, we are expected to fulfill our job tasks. I want to ask you to draw up the 2015 budget until the arrival of the delegation of the European Commission, International Monetary Fund and World Bank. So, every minister will speak to the Finance Ministry and then as regards the special measures, we’ll take a political decision within the coalition and the Government,” Ponta said at the Government sitting.
Victor Ponta said Monday that the Government intends to continue the act of governance, together with the Social Democratic Party (PSD), the National Union for Romania’s Progress (UNPR), the Conservative Party (PC), the Hungarian Union for Romania’s Progress (UDMR) and the Liberal Reformist Party (PLR), to adopt the budget as soon as possible, in the coming period.
“The flat tax will not change and there will be no fee and tax increases, but on the contrary, we have a budget to prepare for 2015 – 2016, meant to continue the economic growth,” Victor Ponta said, adding that the budget would be sent to Parliament at the end of November.
While the 2015 budget will be formed after negotiations with the three major financial institutions, Ponta’s government has said it will not sign a new deal with the Fund when the current agreement expires in September next year. Romania has had three precautionary loan deals from the IMF since the country’s boom turned to bust in 2009, including support for deep austerity measures pushed through under the previous centre-right government.
On the other hand, Erste analysts do not expect a higher volatility on the domestic financial markets following the Romanian presidential elections, adding that the top priority of the government is to come up with a 2015 draft budget to cover the populist measures taken prior to elections.