The implementation of the general consolidated budget for the first three months of 2023 ended with a deficit of 1.42% of GDP, corresponding to 22.75 billion lei, the Ministry of Finance reports. The Financial Communiqué does not forget to name “revenue slowdown” among the reasons for the fiscal imbalance.

In the first quarter of the current year, the revenues of the general consolidated budget amounted to 114.17 billion lei, which is 9.7% higher than the level obtained in the same period last year. Their change was mainly influenced by the dynamics of income from wages and income tax, non-tax income, insurance contributions. Net VAT Receipts (Net VAT Receipts is the difference between the collected or gross VAT and the VAT refund).

The expenses of the general consolidated budget in the amount of 136.92 billion lei increased in nominal terms by 14.3% compared to the same period last year. Expressed as a percentage of gross domestic product, spending in the first three months of 2023 rose 0.1 percentage point from the same period in 2022, from 8.5% of GDP to 8.6% of GDP.

• Personnel expenses amounted to 30.54 billion lei, an increase of 7.8% compared to the same period last year. Expressed as a share of GDP, personnel costs amounted to 1.9% of GDP, which is 0.1 percentage point lower than in the same period of the previous year.

• Expenditure on goods and services amounted to 17.51 ​​billion lei, which is 17.2% more than in the same period last year. The increase is reflected in local budgets by 16.0%, respectively, as well as in the EFMS budget by 18.7% for payments for drugs with and without a personal contribution and drugs used in national health care programs.

• Interest expenses amounted to 9.12 billion lei. Compared to the same period of the previous year, interest payments related to the public debt portfolio increased by 3.36 billion lei as a result of pre-financing in the first 3 months of the gross financing requirement for 2023. Thus, after the first 3 months of the year, in the context of an increase in the appetite of the domestic and foreign investment environment for government bonds, 43.0% of the gross financing need for 2023 has already been secured.

• Expenditures on social assistance amounted to 50.53 billion lei, which is 9.5% more than in the same period last year.

• Expenditure on subsidies amounted to 5.02 billion lei, mainly, this amount represents subsidies for passenger transport, to support agricultural producers, as well as for the compensation scheme for the consumption of electricity and natural gas by non-household consumers (1.42 billion lei), which is 28 .26% of the total amount of subsidies.

• Other expenses amounted to 2.09 billion lei, mainly amounts related to payment titles issued by the National Property Restitution Authority, scholarships for pupils and students, support of cults, other civil compensations.

• Investment expenditures, which include capital expenditures as well as those related to development programs financed from internal and external sources, amounted to 13.16 billion lei, an increase of 56.5% compared to the same period of the previous year, when they amounted to 8.41 billion lei.