Field: Governance and social capital

Subfield: Government performance

Details:

This indicator expresses the difference between revenues and expenditures in the government sector, and is measured as a percentage of GDP or million Euro. The notions used in calculating the indicator are net lending, which refers to the financial resources that the government makes available to other sectors, and net borrowing, which refers to the government’s need to borrow financial resources from other sectors. General government deficit/ surplus is one of the most known and used indicators in the public sphere, where it is known as government deficit. Government deficit is closely monitored by the European Commission, that can intervene if the deficit exceeds the reference value of 3%, unless it is sufficiently diminishing and approaching the reference value at a satisfactory pace. In 2017, Romania had a deficit of 2.9%, three times higher than the EU average (1%), with just Portugal, Spain and Malta reaching or exceeding the reference value.