In January 2010, Romania spent 127 million lei more from the state budget than it was able to raise. The budget deficit in January amounted to 0.03% of the GDP - 157 million lei - according to the state secretary in the Finance Ministry Gheorghe Gherghina.
Gherghina stated that the financial exercise from January was good because this is the month when the tax on profit reaches the budget and because the impact of salary spending was weaker since the salary funds reduced. This must not come as a surprise as long as the tradition of the budget recording a slight surplus in the first months of the year exists. This is usually followed by significant spending and reduced revenue, leading to deficit.
Romania pledged to record a maximum 5.9% of the GDP budget deficit in 2010, after last year the consolidated general budget deficit was 36.4 billion lei, namely 7.2% of the GDP, slightly below the target agreed with the IMF in the stand-by agreement (7.3%).
