The Romanian Government plans to lower the budget deficit to 5.9% of the GDP in 2010, and the Ministry of Public Finances now waits for the expenditure budget drafts of the other ministries, Finance Minister Gheorghe Pogea said yesterday, as quoted by NewsIn.
He added that the Ministry of Finance is currently working on the decentralization process, as well as on the presentation of the local budgets in the state budget consolidated in 2 sections: Operation and Development, "which would detail the sources for every administrative unit".
The government will also present a version of the multi-annual national budget for 2010, Pogea said.
The IMF expects the 2010 budget deficit to go below 6% of the GDP, IMF envoy Jeffrey Franks said on August 11th.
The IMF officials and Romanian authorities have agreed on a public deficit target of 7.3% of the GDP for 2009, as the economy dropped 8-8.5% this year.
Franks warned that the next tranches of the IMF loan could be denied if the government fails to keep the budget deficit for 2009 within the agreed limits.
IMF officials said they expect the Romanian economy to grow by 0.5%-1% in 2010.