This is bad news that can be found in the governing platform, part of the austerity measures presented during the hearings for the endorsement of the new executive. These measures are meant to correct the ratio between current expenses and investments, given that the budget policy for 2010 targets a budget deficit accounting for 5.9% of the GDP, as agreed upon with the international financial institutions with which Romania has concluded a stand-by agreement worth almost 20 billion euros.

Hence the government’s decision to rationalise the public sector’s institutional structure, to consolidate structural reforms in the pension system by widening the contribution base, to better manage social assistance programmes and to establish a prudent salary policy in the state owned sector. Another priority of the new government is to promote a law on fiscal liability and another one on the reform of the pension system.

Some optimism, however, comes from the National Economic Forecast Committee, which estimates that, as of next year, economy might grow by more than 1.3% and industry is going to be the engine to get the economic mechanism moving. Moreover, Romania might end 2009 with an economic contraction smaller than 7%, although it was believed that the drop was going to reach 8%.

The daily COTIDIANUL writes that “the chaos created by the government through the lavish expenditure in state owned institutions will be set straight next year, at the expense of state employees and through sacrifices imposed on pensioners and students,” who will no longer benefit from free transportation. The daily newspaper ROMANIA LIBERA quotes the president of the trade union federation ‘Cartel Alfa’, Bogdan Hossu, as saying that ‘possible lay offs will be caused by the re-organisation of several institutions’. The daily paper ZIARUL FINANCIAR carries an interview with the head of the National Economic Forecast Committee, Ion Ghizdeanu, who makes an analysis of economic indicators, concluding that the economy is slowly recovering.