Business Forum • 27 March, 2026 at 9:57 AM
Romania's consolidated general budget recorded a deficit of RON 14.23 billion (€2.86 billion) - 0.70% of GDP, in the first two months of 2026, half the RON 30.24 billion deficit (€2.86 billion) - 1.58% of GDP from the same period in 2025.
This represents a 0.88 percentage point reduction in the budget deficit as a share of GDP.
Total revenues reached RON 103.73 billion (€20.85 billion) in January-February 2026, up 15.7% year-on-year. As a share of GDP, total revenues advanced by 0.37 percentage points, with 0.20 percentage points coming from current revenues, particularly VAT and income taxes.
Net VAT collections recorded RON 23.75 billion (€4.77 billion), up 20.6% compared to last year, driven by accelerated gross VAT collections of 20.3% year-on-year due to improved collection performance. VAT refunds increased to RON 7.22 billion (€1.45 billion) in January-February 2026 from RON 6.08 billion (€1.22 billion) in the same period of 2025, providing liquidity injection into the economy to support private investment. Income and salary tax collections totalled RON 13.46 billion (€2.71 billion), registering 22.3% growth, driven by a significant 57.6% advance in dividend tax collections.
Total expenditures of RON 117.96 billion (€23.71 billion) decreased 1.6% in nominal terms compared to the first two months of 2025. As a share of GDP, expenditures fell from 6.3% to 5.8%. Social assistance expenditures totalled RON 43.18 billion (€8.68 billion), up 0.9% year-on-year, while personnel expenditures amounted to RON 27.13 billion (€5.45 billion), down RON 0.98 billion (€0.19 billion) from the previous year due to reductions in bonuses for certain categories of budget personnel.
Investment expenditures, including capital expenditures and development programmes financed from internal and external sources, were RON 11.20 billion (€2.25 billion), with 76.82% representing payments for projects financed from non-reimbursable external funds for the 2021-2027 framework and PNRR funding.