Why is the state borrowing 100m euros from BRD and BCR for Otopeni airport?
The Otopeni Airport upgrade will be financed via a 100 million-euro "private" loan taken out by the national company that manages it, although theoretically the state borrowed 20 billion euros from the IMF and the European Commission precisely for investment purposes.
Officials of the Government and of the Transport Ministry did
not answer questions on the issue by edition close.
"With us there are a lot of priority investments, which exceed the
allocated funds by far, including this year. There was probably a
trade-off between the urgency of the project and the available
funds," commented Laurian Lungu, partner of Macroanalitica
consultancy.
Last year capital goods expenditures fell by nearly 12% against
2009, which shows that the government preferred to put off certain
investment projects in order to meet the deficit target, amid
increased social assistance and interest rate spending.
Compania Naţională "Aeroporturi Bucureşti" ("Bucharest Airports"
National Company) borrowed 50 million euros from each of BRD and
BCR, the two biggest banks on the Romanian market by assets in
order to cover investments in modernising Otopeni Airport,
necessary as part of the effort to join the Schengen area.