sursa foto: Inquam Photos/ Octav Ganea
In the first half of the year, the government paid record interest of 8.6 billion lei, while public debt exploded last year, with a budget deficit of 102 billion lei, and the state continues this year with a very high deficit, which would rise from 80 billion lei to almost 83 billion lei after the budget rectification, according to data published by profit.ro.
For the year as a whole, interest and commission expenses on government public debt are estimated at 16.63 billion lei, a record amount. In the first six months of last year, interest charges amounted to 8.35 billion lei, and for the whole year 2020 to 13.9 billion lei. Budget revenue in the first six months of this year was 176.38 billion lei and expenditure 210.19 billion lei, resulting in a deficit of 33.8 billion lei.
According to data published by the Ministry of Finance, the state debt level stood at 49.5% of GDP in June, down slightly from 49.7% in May. The 50% threshold was probably breached in July, a month for which the ministry did not publish data, after the state borrowed €3.5 billion (17.2 billion lei) from the foreign market earlier this month. The foreign market outflow was also motivated by the need to cover its financing needs in the context of months when it borrowed more heavily from the domestic market.
