Sources: Romania governing coalition decides increase of budget sector salaries starting October 1. PM Emil Boc denies talks on the issue

Luni, 1 august 2011, 13:58 English | Top News

The Romanian governing coalition decided on Monday to increase the salaries of budget-sector employees starting with the fourth quarter of 2011, according to sources quoted by TV news channels. The level of increase will be set according with budget incomes. But later on Monday PM Emil Boc denied that the increase starting October 1 was discussed within the coalition.

Monday morning, during a presentation of conclusions following an IMF mission to Romania, IMF representative Jeffrey Franks said that fiscal incomes were in line with projections while spending was kept under control. He said this would allow a slight increase of salaries in Romanian public sector in upcoming months.

He later said in an interview with Antena 3 TV news channel that the budget was looking well but would not provide a figure for the increase of salaries and only said a reasonable figure should be considered.

Varujan Pambuccian, leader of the national minorities group in the Romanian Parliament, told Gandul.info news website that a 5 percent increase was discussed.

On Sunday, following a meeting with IMF, European Commission and World Bank representatives, President Traian Basescu urged political parties, especially those in the governing coalition, to avoid any sort of populist measures and pointed out the situation in EU countries around Romania was fragile and that made Romania fragile as well.