EU Commissioner Joaquin Almunia: EU excessive deficit procedure will be launched for RomaniA

European Commissioner for monetary affairs Joaquin Almunia announced on Monday that the excessive deficit procedure will be launched for Romania, as the European Commission presented its Spring forecast on Monday.

Romania’s budgetary deficit exceeded the 3% threshold for budgetary deficits, to represent 5.4% of GDP. The main cause was the overall high expenses of the state than those initially planned for public sector salaries and social transfers.

Moreover, the optimistic estimations regarding budgetary incomes did not materialize and a sharp decrease in collecting incomes in the last two months of 2008 deepened the deficit.