Eurostat: Romania posts 3 percent budget deficit in 2016

Romania’s budget deficit reached 3 percent of GDP in 2016, according to Eurostat. Overall, 4 EU member states had a deficit equal or higher than 3 percent, says Eurostat, based on an initial estimation released on Monday.

Spain recorded a negative result, of 4.5 percent of the GDP, France had a 3.4 percent deficit and Romania and the United Kingdom had a deficit of 3 percent.

At the end of 2016 Romania was among the EU member states with the lowest level of Government debt from GDP (37.6 percent) and a lower level in Estonia (9.5 percent of the GDP), Luxembourg (20 percent), Bulgaria (29.5 percent) and Czech Republic (37.2 percent). At EU level, 16 member states had a debt higher than 60 percent of the GDP in 2106.

According to Eurostat, in 2016 the Government deficit and the debt, both in Euro zone and in EU 28, dropped compared with 2015. In Euro zone the deficit dropped from 2.1 percent from GDP in 2015 to 1.5 percent of the GDP in 2016, while in EU it dropped from 2.4 percent to 1.7 percent. The Government debt in Euro zone dropped from 90.3 percent from GDP at the end of 2015 to 89.2 percent at the end of 2016, while in EU it went down from 84.9 percent to 83. Percent.

The Eurostat data differs compared with the general budget from 2016, according to which 2016 closed with a deficit of RON 18.3 billion, respectively 2.4 percent of the GDP.

At the beginning of 2017, the European Commission estimated that in 2016 the budget deficit will grow up to 3 percent of the GDP, the limit of the Maastricht Treaty. The state budget for 2017 was built on a deficit of 2.95 percent of the GDP.

The estimations for 2017 show that in Romania the public deficit would reach 3.6 percent of the GDP compared with 3.2 percent as it was estimated in the autumn by Eurostat.