Romania’s H1 budget execution data published by Eurostat prompts political accusations

Romania Insider · 23.10.2026, 06:41:00

The figure was the highest reading among EU countries, up from 7.7% in the same period of 2025 and 7.3% in the same period of 2024. The figures prompted political accusations . The data fuelled criticism from the Social Democratic Party (PSD), which, in a press release and statements by party leaders and economic advisers, accused the government headed by former prime minister Ilie Bolojan of poor performance, Digi24 reported. PSD argued that the government deferred payments to contractors to keep the cash deficit reported by the Finance Ministry down. The party, which left the ruling coalition in April before returning to government in October, is seeking a thorough assessment of public finances at the time it took over the executive. It pointed to the much more optimistic official data published by the Finance Ministry, which showed the budget deficit falling to 2.00% of GDP in H1 2026 from 3.63% in the same period of 2025. The Finance Ministry explained most, but not all, of the discrepancy. The ministry, headed by Alexandru Nazare under both prime minister Ilie Bolojan and the newly appointed PM Luca Niculescu, responded to PSD, explaining the technical reasons behind the two sets of figures. The Eurostat and Finance Ministry figures are not directly comparable: the former are seasonally adjusted and express the quarterly deficit as a share of GDP, while the latter are not seasonally adjusted and express the deficit as a share of annual GDP. However, the ESA figures, particularly those that are not seasonally adjusted, show abnormal variations that the ministry’s response explains only in general terms. There is also a significant discrepancy between the ESA and cash methodologies on the expenditure side, in addition to the revenue discrepancy, which may partly reflect the different treatment of EU funds, whose absorption increased substantially in 2026. The Finance Ministry acknowledged “recorded obligations” as a source of the discrepancy. Higher expenditure u