Romania will not ask for help from the International Monetary Fund in 2020, said the Minister of Public Finances, Florin Cîţu.

“We will not reach the IMF. We have managed to finance this deficit, which I tell you is a first for Romania in the last 30 years, but also for many economies in this world, without asking for help. I guarantee you that we will not asks for the help of the IMF in 2020,” said Florin Cîţu, according to Agerpres.

The Minister of Finance tried to respond to the accusations regarding the large loans that the ministry he leads makes and stressed that where possible, savings were made to the state budget.

“Every month I explained where this money is going. Romania, of course, started this year with a deficit that comes from the past, a deficit in which salaries and pensions and allowances increased at the beginning of the year, there were expenses that do not produce immediately. At the same time, of course, we had the investment expenses. In the first 6 months we had the investment expenses of 16 million lei, so, on the one hand, the deficit with which we started the year. On the other hand we were in a crisis situation in March, a state of emergency, but things had deteriorated a little before, which meant that we would have lower revenues to the estimated state revenue budget, hence an increase in the deficit again. These loans only serve to tell the difference between what we receive and what we spend. The expenses tell you that they were lower than what we had planned. Where we could, where we raised and tried to save, we did not waste public money,” he said.