early payments for the profit tax due in the second quarter-year, the payment of the value-added tax for the special quarterly settlement and the amounts received from the European Union have led to a drop in the budget deficit to 0.98 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the seven months of this year, which is a five-year low, Minister-delegate for Budget Liviu Voinea told Agerpres on Tuesday.
The 7-month budget gap has never been so narrow since 2008, when it accounted for 0.64 per cent of GDP at the end of July, but this had come amid a favourable economic background, i.e. before the outbreak of the economic crisis.
Voinea explained that these are preliminary figures, with the Public Finances Ministry to release the budget implementation in the seven months early next week, but he added such provisional figures point to the budget deficit being on a downward trend and to the fact Romania is not in danger of missing the 2013 budget deficit target. The Romanian budget deficit target is put at 2.3 per cent of GDP this year and the GDP is estimated to total some EUR 139 bln (RON 626.2 bln).
