Budget revenues collection going well, investment spending not enough

The state's investment spending fell by over 17% in the first two months of the year compared with the similar period of 2010, amounting to just 1.3 billion lei, while overall budget revenues climbed 8.3% to 27.5 billion lei.

The state budget continued to see higher revenues collected in February thanks to the significant increase in VAT collection, but the authorities are putting off investment spending, which is expected to pull the economy out of recession.

The Government boasted it had received the IMF's consent to spend on investments back in the beginning of the year, but figures do not point to an encouraging progress of state investments.

Analysts have said on countless occasions that public investments should not be cut, especially during this time when the private sector is still ailing and the economy has yet to fully recover. The right ways to meet the deficit target primarily entail cutting non-essential spending, not reducing amounts allocated to investments.
For the first quarter of the year, the maximum deficit target was increased to 8 billion lei precisely in order to allocate higher amounts to investments. Two months into the year, the deficit reached 2.3 billion lei (0.43% of GDP).