Senate President: The largest investment budget in Romania's modern history

Senate President Mircea Abrudean declared on Radio Romania News that the 2026 budget is a balanced and development budget, built on investments and reducing public spending.

Economic growth based on investments

According to him, the budget targets a deficit of 6.2% and an economic growth of 1%, based on investments, not on consumption, as happened in previous years.

Mircea Abrudean emphasized that the largest investment budget in Romania's modern history is foreseen, amounting to 164 billion lei, representing approximately 8% of GDP.

The Senate President also highlighted the importance of European funds, estimating that Romania must absorb approximately 10 billion euros this year. He warned that exceeding the deficit target could affect the granting of these funds, in the context of the commitments assumed towards the European institutions.

He specified that the budget is not an austerity budget, even if it includes measures to reduce state spending, but rather pursues development through investments in energy, infrastructure, education and health.

"It is a balanced budget, a development budget, I would say, because we have the largest investments provided for in this budget, with an emphasis on European funds, obviously, on the energy area, because this subject is of great interest to Romania, in education, in health, of course on the infrastructure side, so I wouldn't call it an austerity budget, even if, of course, it provides for some restrictions on state spending that everyone has been waiting for so long, because it is normal for people to want to no longer be burdened with taxes and duties, as they were in the first part of this government, because things could not be done otherwise, because everyone asks why you didn't start with the cuts in the state. Well, let's see, it took seven months to reach an agreement on the reform of the administration. Romania could not afford seven months in which not to take some measures to balance the budget, because we were heading for collapse."

At the same time, he argued that the economic measures recently adopted, although unpopular, were necessary to avoid an economic crisis and to maintain the trust of European and international institutions. He warned that, without these measures, Romania risked losing European funds and a downgrade in its country rating.

The President of the Senate also stated that the effects of the reforms could be felt by the population in the second half of the year, through lower inflation, stabilizing public debt and increasing purchasing power.

"These measures, which were not popular and impacted the population and the business environment, in the end, yielded results. Things are already visible in the figures and we hope that they will be felt, I repeat, from the second half of this year directly by the citizens and, of course, to gradually give up on them, that is the goal."

Translated by: Radu Matei