President Iohannis: The 2017 budget voted by Parliament seems “problematic”, “risky”

Newsroom 14/02/2017 | 13:55

Romanian president Klaus Iohannis claims that there are some issues with the budget voted by MPs and that he will decide in the next days if he approves it or sends it back to Parliament to be rediscussed and voted once again.

“The budget, at the first analysis I made, seems to be problematic and risky. Revenues are envisaged, which in my opinion seem to be overvalued. On the other hand, the expenses are very big. There is a real risk for the deficit of 3 percent to be exceeded,” said Iohannis after a meeting with PM Sorin Grindeanu and the minister of finance, Viorel Stefan.

The president said he was concerned by some of the figures in the budget that was voted by the Parliament last Tuesday.

This year’s buget is based on an economic growth estimate of 5.2 percent of GDP, which has been described as rather optimistic by some economists.

In addition, the European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, forecasts that the local economy will grow by 4.4 percent this year, adding there is a risk for the budget deficit to go over 3 percent.