Vice-president of National Institute of Statistics steps down

Newsroom 09/01/2013 | 14:42

After last week Romanian PM Victor Ponta dismissed Vergil Voineagu, the president of the National Institute of Statistics, the institution’s VP, Florin Ciurariu, has stepped down from the position, according to a government decision published today in the Official Gazette.

Ponta said he took the decision after the adjustment of the country’s GDP for 2011 which was reduced by some EUR 4.4 billion. This was labeledas a “serious miscalculation” by the PM. Following this change, the government will have to reduce budget spending this year by almost RON 1 billion (approximately EUR 224 million) in order to meet the budget deficit target, said the PM.

The change also means that the economic growth for 2011 had to be revised downwards, from an initial 2.5 percent to 2.3 percent.

INS representatives said the recent GDP adjustment could not be previously foreseen but while each year there are differences between GDP estimations and the final data, this has never been as significant as in 2011, said INS representatives according to Mediafax.

Voineagu will be replaced by Beatrix Gered in an interim capacity.