Romania’s leaders react to news of economic slump

Newsroom 14/08/2014 | 22:50

President Traian Basescu said on Thursday that “cutting back social security contributions does nothing else but accelerate the descent into crisis by increasing the deficit in the pension fund” and that, equally, PSD, PNL and PDL “are lying to the Romanian people to take away their votes”.

“We don’t have any resources. They want to deceive those in the economy because cutting social contributions takes away money from the worker and gives it to the companies”, according to Basescu, who on Thursday evening held a special press conference at the presidential palace.

“I believe at this time that , equally, all the leaders of major partie, who hold the office and those who are in opposition, are just as irresponsible and deceitful, regardless if we’re talking about Ponta, Iohannis, Blaga. They support the CAS cut and will bring this country into a new crisis”, according to the president.

The chief of state believes that Romania is nearing a crisis and the only reason that the country is currently in recession is because of “faulty government”.

“Romania has entered a recession according to EU standards (…) I’m giving you a warning, because I lived through this process once before with a deceitful government, under Tariceanu. We’re getting ready to enter a process of impairement for the macro-economic situation. It’s not to late, we can still take the necessary steps to avoid this crisis, but it is close. We are in recession”, the president said who also added that the main cause for this situation, generally speaking, is “faulty government”.

The government released a statement on Thursday after INS released its data comparing it strictly to the data from last year and thus proving that Romania is continuing to expand its economy.

“Given that data that the National Institute of Statistics offered us, it’s evident that Romania is continuing to grow economically, given the industry’s and exports’ positive evolution. Economic growth in the first semester, compared to the first semester of 2013, is 2.6 percent in adjusted series. Romania continues to have one of the biggest economic growths in Europe”, the Government states.

It also argued that economic indicators such as consumption and exports grew by 8 percent in the first semester, while unemployment stagnated and inflation is low. All these things taken into consideration, the target of 2.5 percent GDP growth by the end of the year is still standing.

Prime-minister Victor Ponta also reacted by posting a message on Facebook where he said that Romania is still going forward, but at “100 kilometers per hour, compared to 130”.

“There is still room to grow this fall and that is why we raised the minimum wage, we introduced the debt support scheme and we eliminated the profit tax. We’re not blocked by an austere regime any more and we can do more. That is why the election in the autumn are so important”, Ponta said.

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