Financiarul

The 2010 budget plan that the Finances Ministry is currently drafting is based on 0.5 percent economic growth next year and on an average inflation rate of 3.7 percent, according to the Outline Letter on the macro-economic circumstances, the methods to draft the 2010 budget plans and the estimations for 2011-2013, as well as on the expenditure limits set by the main public institutions.

The economic growth will step up starting 2011, when it will reach a pace of 2.4 percent, to go up to 3.7 percent in 2012 and to 4.4 percent in 2013, with the average inflation rate to drop to 2.5 percent by 2013. The rate of exchange considered when drawing up the 2010 draft budget is 4.20 lei to the euro, down from 4.25 lei to the euro, which had been considered at the 2009 budget.

The exchange rates estimated for next years are 4.17 lei to the euro in 2011, 4.12 lei to the euro in 2012 and 4.07 lei to the euro in 2013. The authorities seek to keep the wages in 2010 at this year’s levels, and they also plan to take other measures to reorganize the state sector.

Social security contributions will also be kept at the current levels. The public institutions will have to consider measures to slash the spending on goods and services, so that they fall below the 2009 levels. The 2010 budget plan is being drafted at the Finances Ministry and it will be completed and sent to the Parliament in the shortest possible time, Prime Minister Emil Boc told the public radio station on Tuesday.

“At this moment, the law is being drafted at the Finances Ministry. The figures from the ministries are being centralized, so that in the upcoming period the Parliament may be put forward a budget plan in line with the agreement with the international institutions”, Boc said