The president said Romania is better-off than Italy, Spain, Portugal, Ireland or Greece from the perspective of its macroeconomic balance and need to borrow, but the economy is still fragile.
He added that „some politicians” have learned that Romania has managed to slash expenses and increase earnings, so that it has an additional 2.5 billion lei (EUR590 million) at its disposal, and they have started a rumor that salaries in the public sector were to be raised.
The president argued that the RON2.5 billion would be better used to cover some of the public pension fund’s deficit, which is RON14.2 billion.
Still, the authorities plan to „try” to increase salaries in the public sector as of 2012, according to Basescu. The exact raise is unknown, he added, because Romania’s evolution is tied to European and global trends.