BUCHAREST, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- The Romanian Parliament approved on Friday the 2019 state budget.
The budget is based on an economic growth of 5.5 percent, which means a gross domestic product (GDP) of 1,022.5 billion lei (243.36 billion U.S. dollars). The government's projected economic growth is significantly higher than the 3.5-percent-forecast made by the World Bank in its semiannual Global Economic Prospects report in early January.
The revenues of the general consolidated budget will be 342.675 billion lei or 33.5 percent of the GDP, with a deficit of 2.76 percent, against 2.55 percent as initially estimated, to ensure the funding source for higher children allowances, after an amendment proposed by main opposition in this respect was adopted in the parliament.
"The budget reflects Romania's current economic and social reality," Prime Minister Viorica Dancila declared on Friday in the Parliament plenary, before the final vote on the draft budget was cast.
"Just as any budget in our country or elsewhere in the world, it cannot meet all the expectations, yet it is a realistic budget that carries development prospects for Romania," she stressed.
According to the prime minister, 2019 is the "year of investments" that are directed to areas such as transport infrastructure, health, the construction of kindergartens or local development projects, and the investment amounts have been supplemented by 15.7 billion lei compared to the previous year, 6 billion of which are added directly to the transport infrastructure budget.
"This year we want to speed up works on expressways and motorways," she added.
Romanian President Klaus Iohannis kept his attack on the government's budget, saying that the budget reflects the contempt for the expectations of Romanians," who want a responsible and credible governance."
According to the head of state, the budget is built of a superficial manner, based on overestimated figures in relation to the economic realities. (1 dollar = 4.2016 lei)
