UPDATE PM Dancila: Gov't adopting draft 2019 national budget; health, education, investments, main pillars

The Government will adopt today Romania's 2019 national budget, Prime Minister Viorica Dancila announced on Friday in the beginning of a government meeting.

"Today we are adopting the 2019 draft budget. It has been widely discussed by all the relevant parties, and when building it we counted on the support of three main pillars: health, education, public investment. We also took into account budgetary allocations that will honour Romania's commitments to external partners, such as 2pct of GDP for defence spending, which ensures Romania's meeting its commitments in relation to NATO partners, and money needed to organise the events of the Romanian presidency of the Council of the European Union," Dancila said.

According to the prime minister, the Ministry of European Funds has a record budget of 2.3 billion lei, of which 2,09 billion are earmarked for European projects.

"For the first time, the value of the GDP will exceed 1,000 billion lei, which is additional confirmation of good economic stimulus measures," said Dancila, who added that the government deficit will remain at 2.55pct of the GDP.

"We have secured financing to cover the increase in public pensions and wages, the payment of social security benefits and allowances and the support of economic stimulus policies, all measures pledged under the governance programme. We continue to increase the pension point by 15pct as from September 1, 2019, from 1.100 to 1,265 lei, and the minimum pension by 10pct, from 640 to 704 lei. We have covered the increase in the differentiated minimum guaranteed monthly wage to 2,080 lei from 1,900 lei last year, and to 2,350 lei for higher education graduates with at least one-year job seniority, and to 3,000 lei for persons employed by companies deriving at least 80pct of their turnover in the construction sector," added Dancila.

She said healthcare is of utmost concern for the government, and this year's healthcare funding will stand 6.1 billion over the 2018 allocations.

"We will complete investment in the healthcare facilities' rehabilitation, expansion and equipment started in the past years, such as the Timisoara Pediatric Hospital, the hospitals in Falticeni, Neamt, Hunedoara and Bistrita. This year, the Ministry of Health has prioritised the improvement of healthcare services for children under the National Mother and Child Healthcare Programme, under which 1,000 incubators will be acquired," said Dancila.

According to the prime minister, education has been allocated 47pct more funds than in 2018, from 21 billion lei to 30.8 billion lei, with the money going both towards investment and pay increases.

She mentioned that the important programmes to be carried out going forward include the provision of each the 5th-12th grade classroom with interactive electronic boards, worth 0.7 billion lei, for about two million children, as well as a 25-percent increase in the net income of teachers. AGERPRES (RO - author: Dana Piciu, editor: Claudia Stanescu; EN - author: Corneliu-Aurelian Colceriu, editor: Adina Panaitescu)