Country data room 2013

 Public Finances

These statistics capture the economic activity of public administration, in particular government revenues and expenditures, namely public debt including transactions in financial assets and liabilities, other economic stocks and flows.

The Maastricht Treaty provides for EU Member States to comply with budgetary discipline by respecting two criteria: a deficit equivalent to no more than 3% of GDP and a debt-to-GDP ratio no higher than 60%. The reference values are based on Government Finance Statistics concepts and produced in accordance with the European System of Accounts 1995 (ESA 95).

Thus,government surplus / deficit is the net lending / net borrowing of general government sector and subsectors, as defined in ESA95.

Government debt is defined as the total consolidated gross debt in nominal terms at end of period for the following categories of government liabilities (defined in ESA95): currency and deposits, securities other than shares excluding financial derivatives, and loans.

Institutional responsibilities within the elaboration and reporting to the European Commission of the government deficit and debt Notification on the basis of Excessive Deficit Procedure were established by the Protocol of cooperation on the National System of Government Finance Statistics, between the Ministry of Public Finance, the National Institute of Statistics (national coordinator), the National Bank of Romania and the National Commission of Prognosis.

Gross External Debt Statistics

Gross external debt outstanding is structured below by institutional sectors (general government, monetary authorities, banks, other sectors), original maturity (short- and long-term) and debt instruments (debt securities, trade credits, loans, currency and deposits, other debt liabilities). In this classification, data are reported under the IMF dissemination standard – SDDS.

Structure by institutional sector, term and financial instruments

Source: NBR

Inflation Targets

Inflation targets are formulated in terms of the annual change in the consumer price index and are set as midpoints within a target band of +/-1 percentage points.

Similar to the experience of other central banks in the region which are implementing monetary policy in the context of inflation targeting, there are two distinct phases in the type and the levels of the inflation targets set by the NBR so far:

- the phase of declining inflation targets, set over a 2-year horizon as year-end annual rates (2005-2012), which is required primarily in order to consolidate the disinflation process and achieve a sustainable annual inflation rate in the medium term;

- the phase of a flat multi-annual inflation target, consistent with the medium-term price stability definition in the Romanian economy (starting 2013); this is an intermediate stage meant to ensure the transition towards the phase of long-term continuous inflation targeting – in line with the ECB’s quantitative definition of price stability.