Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu announced on Saturday, at the beginning of the Government meeting, that the Executive was to adopt the budget draft for 2025, one "without changes to taxes and duties", Agerpres reports.
He pointed out that the budget is a "development budget," with investments reaching a "new record" of 150 billion lei. Ciolacu highlighted that this represents "an increase of 30 billion compared to last year."
"20% of the total expenses in 2025 will go towards investments, and this will be reflected in the GDP growth to 1913 billion lei. By the middle of next year, we will reach a GDP of 2000 billion lei, which is 400 billion euros, double compared to 2018. This is a clear sign that Romania is entering a different economic league," said the PM.He also mentioned that the operational costs of the state will be reduced by 0.5%. Additionally, personnel expenses and goods and services expenditures will be adjusted.
"We continue to protect the purchasing power of Romanians with low incomes. Since January 1, we increased the minimum wage to 4050 lei. In 2025, the net wage will increase by 6.1%, above the inflation rate of 4.4%. I insisted that we provide financial support for pensioners with low incomes, and I take responsibility for this decision," said Ciolacu."There are tens of billions of lei aimed at increasing local industrial production. I would like us to promote Romanian businesses and products everywhere, even on TikTok," added Marcel Ciolacu.
He also mentioned that local investments will be prioritised based on their economic impact. 11 billion lei will be allocated to the Anghel Saligny and PNDL programmes, 8.2 billion to PNRR projects, and 3.3 billion to those funded by European funds."In addition, we will significantly increase decentralisation of public financing to local authorities this year. The biggest stake of this budget is to maximise the use of available European funds. This is a historic allocation of 4.6% of GDP, which equals over 17.5 billion euros. These are the peak years of our development using European funds, and I will put huge pressure on everyone to access this money," said Ciolacu.
The Prime Minister asked for the amount allocated to investments to be higher than the deficit.
"This means more completed motorways, the construction of new hospitals, and a more efficient education system. And we even have good news from the Finance minister: in January 2025, 44.7 billion lei were collected, compared to 41.6 billion lei in 2024. This means a 7.5% increase," said Marcel Ciolacu.