According to the head of the cabinet, Alexandru Munteanu, for the first time, the capital investments will be increased by 55%, which provides up to 3 billion lei for the development of the economy.
The social part of the budget envisages an increase in the minimum wage from 5,500 to 6,300 lei and in the basic wage from 2,200 to 2,400 lei. These measures will primarily affect citizens with low incomes.
Referring to the debt, Filat said that it is “not catastrophic”:
“Taking loans is not a problem. It is very important how we use these funds. In our case, we want to use them for investments. The money should be paid back with high profitability, efficiency, productivity, create new jobs, raise taxes, improve salaries, so that our young people stay in Moldova and do not go to Europe”.
As for the budget deficit of 20.9 billion lei, the prime minister said that it is “healthy” and is mainly related to investments, not to consumption expenses.
“How will we cover this deficit? We will discuss this with external partners during the government’s work. We will discuss with the International Monetary Fund, but we have other sources, naturally. I also want to say that the deficit is larger, but it is mainly caused by planned investments. So, in a certain sense, this deficit is much more ‘healthy’ than the deficit created by consumption expenditures,” Munteanu said.
Finance Minister Andrian Gavrilice said that the deficit is indeed “not small, but it is important to emphasize that about half of the deficit will go to investments.”
RecallAccording to the draft, the national public budget deficit will exceed the current figure and will reach 20.9 billion lei – 5.7% of GDP, while this year it is expected to reach 5.04%.
Also on Thursday, the government adopted draft budgets of the State Social Insurance and Compulsory Health Insurance. They will be submitted to parliament. MPs will have to vote for them in at least two readings.
