Moldovan PM says cabinet to look for means to cover budget deficit

Chisinau, 19 May /MOLDPRES/ - The government attempts to identify additional money to cover the budget deficit forecast to be larger than 20 billion lei, against 16 billion lei, after a rectification made in last April, in the context of the crisis triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. After this, the cabinet will come to parliament to rectify the budget. Prime Minister ion Chicu made statements to this effect at a news conference today.   

„To come with rectification in parliament, one should identify this money or identify the expenses worth more than four billion lei, which you should remove. We are presently concerned about the first part – to find additional money, so that we do not have to cut the spending. We must find these four billion lei, which was cancelled with the Russian loan,’’ the PM noted.       

Ion Chicu also said that the Russian side had been notified that the agreement on providing Moldova with a loan worth 200 million euros was no longer in force, with a question whether ‘’Russia would be willing to resume the negotiations.’’ ‘’For the time being, we have no answer; we rely a lot on the fact that we will be able to renegotiate this credit; yet, meanwhile, we are looking for other financing sources as well,’’ the official specified.  

„First of all, we count on that emergency macro-financial assistance of 100 million euros, announced by the European Union; the first installment of this money is to come in June-July 2020 and the second one – by the end of this year of the beginning of 2021,’’ Ion Chicu said.

According to the prime minister, other resources are sought too, including on the domestic market. ‘’Also, we have not given up plans of issuing euro-bonds, i.e. issuing of securities on international markets. A governmental team works on this along with Finance Ministry specialists, which is backed by an expert – a Moldovan working at an international financial institution from the United Kingdom and supports us. We hope that we will be able to place euro-bonds by the end of this year,’’ the prime minister also said.     

In another context, the prime minister stressed that, although the government was seeking solutions, in order not to reduce the spending, nevertheless, the Finance Ministry will not accept purchasings of vehicles, furniture, technology, etc. ‘’At a 18 May meeting with the district heads, I demanded the exclusion of any non-priority expenses,’’ Ion Chicu said. He added that the local budget had not been hit at all, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.