ECONOMICS - In Brief

According to governmental sources, the deficit of the general consolidated budget is to be diminished with 0,4% of the GDP due to a budget correction to be operated this month. But Romania's economy minister Varujan Vosganian claims the cut will actually be 1,1, billion Euro, meaning 0,8% of the GDP.

The government is going to leave almost every ministry without 787 million Euro, because of this year's first budget correction. The most substantial cuts are to be operated in fields like defense, agriculture and health, sources say. State institutions will be forbidden to buy properties, cars and even airconditioning this year, just as state budgted institutions will be disallowed to hire more staff. The measures are to effect in a diminishment of public expenses and save about 562 million Euro.

Such changes are sure to disturb the plans of ministries and of the political clientele in particular in an electoral year. It is hard to believe that ministry staff in charge of purchasing equipment and air conditioning haven't made deals with their favorite companies yet. In other words, in a year with both local and parliamentary elections the government is cutting on a source of finance for campaigns. The Romanian PM Calin Popescu Tariceanu is thus cutting his own odds. (...) (F.B.)

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