The second quarter had a negative impact on expectations on the Romanian economy, but, as a whole this year, the economic contraction will be around 2% -3%, the Minister of Public Finance, Florin Cîţu, said on Wednesday evening.

“For the budget rectification, the National Forecast Commission will come up with a new estimate. The initial estimate of minus 1.9% may be changed. It is true that the second quarter had a slightly higher negative impact than we expected, but not very much. We are left out of those apocalyptic estimates that showed a decrease in the economy by minus 6, minus 8, minus 9%. We will not get there. I think that it (will be) between minus 2 and minus 3 “, said Cîţu, specifying that the budget rectification will be made in the second half of July.

Referring to the impact of the four months of pandemic on the budget, the Minister of Finance said that June brought higher budget revenues than last year, according to Agerpres.

“In June, from the point of view of taxation, the economy starts to recover and we see budget revenues that exceed last year’s revenues. The estimates we have show an excess of fiscal revenues compared to last year in 2019. This in the conditions in which we reimbursed VAT more than last year, paid more sick leave and announced today that we have a savings in interest costs, which is lower than last year, in 2019 … Overall, the second quarter is a negative, a difficult quarter. I have always said, the economic recovery, and here I give my hopes for the figures for June, the economic recovery will start in the third quarter and we will stick to the basic scenario with a V – return,” said the Finance minister.