PNL: 2021 budget manages to cover all the state's financial obligations

Liberal deputy Bogdan Hutuca declared on Monday that the 2021 budget manages to cover "absolutely all the state's financial obligations". "The 2021 budget was put together against the background of the health crisis, of the economic crisis triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic and of the major macroeconomic imbalances piled up in the years preceding the crisis. The government was forced to find financial resources for all the needs of the Romanian society and economy and at the same time start an extensive process of consolidating the country's public finances. Let us not forget that the pro-cyclical policies promoted by the Social Democratic Party between 2017 and 2019 have removed all fiscal space, which would have been particularly useful for Romania during the crisis. Let us not forget that in 2019 the European Commission's reports and the rating agencies were cautioning that Romania is the economically most vulnerable EU state in the event of an economic crisis. In conclusion, despite the extremely difficult domestic and international context, the 2021 budget manages to cover absolutely all the Romanian state's financial obligations," Hutuca said during the debates in the Parliament plenum on the 2021 state budget bill. The lawmaker listed as the main such liabilities the public sector payroll, the payment of 14 percent higher pensions, the payment of increased child allowances, the vaccination campaign and additional expenditures in the health system, payments for active measures on the labor market, social assistance and decentralized spending of the public local administration. AGERPRES (RO - author: Florentina Peia, editor: Mihai Simionescu; EN - author: Simona Klodnischi, editor: Simona Iacob)