PM Boc: Romanian Government aims to cut salary spending to 7% of GDP by 2015

The Romanian government aims to cut salary spending to 7% of the GDP by 2015, PM Emil Boc announced on Tuesday during consultations with the president on limiting spending in public administration and welfare. The meeting comes a week after the president criticized the government for not undergoing layoffs announced in the public local and central administration.

President Traian Basescu said at the Tuesday meeting that the government said it would adopt a series of difficult measures to cut budget spending but also to establish a balance between social categories. He said that a salary and pensions draft law pushed by the government was both brave and necessary.

He also said that during Tuesday talks he sought to learn the government position on the process of constitutional revision.

For his part, PM Boc said that had his government not done anything, the budget deficit would have reached 12% in 2009 and 16% in 2010. But due to its intervention the deficit stood at 7.3% in 2009 with a projection of 5.9% in 2010, he said.

He also said that in February 2010 personnel spending was down by 16% as compared to december 2008 when the Boc government was installed in its initial form.