In 2024, external state loans worth 18,117.7 million lei were disbursed, of which 10,549.6 million lei for the state budget support and 7,568.1 million lei for the implementation of projects financed from external sources. However, the level of utilization of external credits was low, the document said.
The grant component of the external assistance was not much different in this sense, although its volume last year exceeded expectations (2,484.7 million lei). This was due to additional disbursements at the end of the year, including the third tranche of macro-financial assistance from the European Commission (96.4 million lei), as well as funds provided by the governments of the Czech Republic and Latvia.
However, compared to the previous year, the volume of grants decreased by MDL 2,652.3 million, representing a decrease of 48.4%. About 71% (1,774.1 million lei) of the funds were used to support the state budget, while 29% (710.2 million lei) were used to finance projects implemented from external sources.
The decrease in the volume of gratuitous aid also did not remove the problems with its utilization at the level of central public authorities. Five of them did not utilize a single leu from the planned grants for 15 projects, which resulted in the non-utilization of about 108.9 million lei. Another eight public authorities recorded only partial disbursement of funds worth 43.1 million lei, with the disbursement rate ranging from 2.4 per cent to 79.1 per cent, the auditors said.
