Bucharest, July 19, 2025 – RBJ – by Constantin Radut – The Ministry of Finance announces through the Agerpres press agency that the public administration debt (government debt) rose in March 2025 to 998.617 billion lei, from 990.84 billion lei in the previous month.
In simple terms, there is nothing to be afraid of, because the country needs development spending. And, indeed, the largest investments in the infrastructure, health and education sectors have been made in the last 3-4 years, Romania reaching a GDP of approximately 80% of the European average and a standard of living of the population above what other neighboring states, Hungary, Greece, Bulgaria, have recorded.
Unfortunately, the current government, installed for over a month, seems alarmed that the country has had good growth and consistent sectoral development. As a result, for about a week it has started to cut indiscriminately from the incomes of employees and pensioners and to freeze several investment projects. Perhaps the government in Bucharest will find better advisors for the country’s economic future.
In this context, it is worth highlighting that, at the end of 2024, according to Eurostat, Romania’s public debt was lower than that of many Central and South-Eastern EU countries, such as Greece (153.6%), Austria (81.8%), Portugal (94.6%), Hungary (73.6%), Slovenia (67%), Slovakia (59.3%). Poland managed to jump to 55.3% in 2024 from 49.5% in 2023. The Czech Republic had a public debt of 43.5% last year.
As a percentage of GDP, Romania’s government debt increased to 56.1% in March, from 55.7% in February.
In March 2025, medium and long-term debt increased to 924.041 billion lei, from 912.802 billion lei in February 2025, and short-term debt decreased to 74.575 billion lei, from 78.036 billion lei in the previous month.
The largest part of this debt, namely 816.864 billion lei, was represented by government securities. Loans amounted to 163.549 billion lei.
The debt in the national currency amounted to 480.712 billion lei, that in euros to 415.352 billion lei, equivalent, and the debt in US dollars to 100.506 billion lei, equivalent.
According to data from the Ministry of Finance, in March, the debt of the central public administration increased to 974.787 billion lei, from 966.362 billion lei in February 2025, of which 900.243 billion lei in the medium and long term. The largest part of the central administration debt was contracted in lei (462.15 billion lei) and in euros (410.085 billion lei, equivalent).
The local public administration debt fell to 23.829 billion lei, from 24.477 billion lei in the previous month, of which 23.797 billion lei in the medium and long term.
At the same time, in the third month of this year, the internal debt of the public administration amounted to 503.717 billion lei (493.791 billion lei in February 2025), respectively 28.3% of GDP (27.8% of GDP, in the previous month), of which 485.201 billion lei was central government debt and 18.516 billion lei was local government debt.
According to the cited source, the external debt of the public administration was 494.899 billion lei (497.048 billion lei in the previous month), respectively 27.8% of GDP (27.9% of GDP in February 2025), of which 489.586 billion lei external debt of the central public administration and 5.313 billion lei external debt of the local public administration.
