PSD's Dragnea: GDP - by at least 10 pct higher if certain institutions had pursued Romania's interest

The GDP and the budget revenues would have been by at least 10 per cent higher if all the state institutions had pursued Romania's interest, instead of just attempting to destabilize this ruling coalition, PSD (Social Democratic Party) leader Liviu Dragnea wrote on his Facebook page, in reply to a post regarding last year's budget revenues.

Asked by a user of the social network when the young people will stop leaving Romania, Dragnea replied: "When the living standards will be close to the European Union average. In 2016, the living standards accounted for 58 pct of the EU average and we managed to lift it up to 63 pct in 2018. We want by the end of 2020 to push it to 68-70 pct."

Another reader of the PSD leader's Facebook page asked how is it possible that the Bulgarians have the same exchange rate since 2007. Liviu Dragnea replied that the Bulgarians took the measure of linking the leva to euro, which means to maintain the leva fix, with the approval of Bulgaria's central bank, "while BNR (National Bank of Romania) did not."

"We cannot counteract BNR's decisions. A first measure regarding the ROBOR was taken through Ordinance 114, while with respect to the exchange rate, it will return to normal parameters. Of course that I would have liked the National Bank to support us and to put Romanians' welfare first," said Dragnea.

He was also asked why he allowed certain persons who retired at 48-50 or 53 years old, with minimum pensions of 4,000 lei, to be hired again in the public system, instead of letting the young people take this jobs.

"We wanted to regulate the cumulation of pensions with salaries from the state, but there is a decision of the Constitutional Court that does not allow this regulation," said the PSD leader.

In the post that triggered all these comments, Dragnea added that Romania ended last year with revenues to the state budget worth 295.1 billion lei, by 71.2 billion lei more than in 2016, representing a growth by 32 per cent.

"Romania's GDP reached 949.6 billion lei in 2018, by 188.2 billion lei more compared with 2016, resulting an increase of 25 pct! These are the highest growths, in two consecutive years, in Romania's history," Liviu Dragnea said. AGERPRES (RO - author: Dana Piciu, editor: Florin Marin; EN - author: Cristina Zaharia, editor: Adina Panaitescu)