For the first time in the last 30 years, Romania’s public debt has exceeded the 50% of GDP threshold in the first months of 2022

By Edwig Ban
The debt of the public administration (government debt) stood, in February 2022, at 596.9 billion lei, increasing compared to the level of 591.55 billion lei recorded in the previous month, according to data centralized by the Ministry of Finance.
In terms of GDP, government debt was 50.6% at the end of February (50.2% of GDP at the end of January 2022).
The medium and long-term debt amounted to 579.158 billion lei, and the short-term debt to 17.741 billion lei.
Most of this debt, respectively 497.556 billion lei, was represented by government securities. The loans amounted to 90.1 billion lei.
A sum of 265.987 billion lei was government debt in lei, 284.398 billion lei was government debt in euros and 45 billion lei equivalent debt in US dollars.
At the end of February, the debt of the central public administration amounted to over 580 billion lei, of which 562.372 billion lei in the medium and long term. Most of the central government’s debt was contracted in euros (280.21 billion lei) and in lei (253.361 billion lei, equivalent).
The debt of the local public administration amounted to 16.816 billion lei, of which 16.786 billion lei in the medium and long term.
The Ministry of Finance shows that the external debt of the public administration was 307.748 billion lei (26.1% of GDP), of which 302.836 billion lei the external debt of the central public administration and 4.512 billion lei the external debt of the local public administration.
According to information provided by the National Institute of Statistics (INS) on December 7, 2021, on the estimated value of GDP for the third quarter of 2021, at the end of September 2021, the government debt indicator represents 48.5% of GDP, below the 60% ceiling set by the Treaty from Maastricht.
According to the methodology of the European Union, the share of government debt in GDP is calculated taking into account the amount of quarterly GDPs achieved in the last 4 quarters reported by the NIS.
Also, according to the most recent Eurostat Communication from October 2021 on the evolution of the level of indebtedness in the Member States of the European Union, at the end of the second quarter of 2021, Romania ranked 9th among EU Member States, with debt level of 47.5% of GDP, after Estonia (19.6% of GDP), Bulgaria (24.7% of GDP), Luxembourg (26.2% of GDP), Sweden (37.9% of GDP) GDP), Denmark (39.7% of GDP), the Czech Republic (42.7% of GDP), Latvia (43.3% of GDP) and Lithuania (44.6% of GDP), below the average government debt for the area euro (EA 19) (98.3% of GDP), below the average government debt for the EU27 (90.9% of GDP).