Romania's public money, 1995–2025

Out of every 100 lei it collects, Romania's state pays 8 in interest

Name: Romania's budget deficit and public debt: where the state's money goes, 1995–2025
Creator: Marius Comper
License: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/about-us/policies/copyright

The state collects taxes, contributions, EU funds and other revenue. In 2025, out of every 100 lei, 8.0 went on interest, the most since 2001 (the peak: 14.6, in 1997). Where the rest goes, how much is borrowed on top, how Romania compares with Poland, Hungary and the EU, governments on the same timeline, and what the rating agencies say.

Marius Comper · published 27 September 2026 · S&P assessment of 2 October 2026 added later

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1 · Out of 100 lei

Where does Romania's public money go, out of every 100 lei collected?

In 2024, the latest year with spending split by purpose, the Romanian state spent 127 lei for every 100 it collected. The extra 27 are the deficit, which the state has to finance, mostly by borrowing. Of the 127: 40 social protection (including pensions), 20 economic affairs (transport, energy, farming), 15 health, 12 education, 7.1 interest, and the rest general public services, public order, defence, environment and culture. For 2025 the interest figure is already out: 8.0 lei per 100.

Year 2024

Interest
Social protection (incl. pensions)
Health
Education
Economic affairs (transport, energy, farming)
General public services (excl. debt)
Police, courts, fire service
Defence
Environment, housing, culture
deficit

For every 100 lei collected: interest, then the other spending by purpose. Everything past the 100 line is deficit. Sources: Eurostat gov_10a_main (July 2026) and gov_10a_exp (September 2026).

“Collected” means all government revenue (central and local government and social security): taxes, contributions, EU funds and other revenue, under European accounting rules (ESA 2010).

The EU average in the same year: 107 lei spent for every 100 collected. Poland: 115. Hungary: 112. All four spent more than they collected; Romania the most.

The biggest gap with the EU average is in “economic affairs”: roads, transport, energy, farming, support for businesses. Romania spent 20 lei per 100 collected, the EU average 12. This includes investment paid for with EU funds.

Use the slider to change the year. The split by purpose runs to 2024; interest and the deficit run to 2025, in the next chapters.

Full table: lei per 100 collected, by purpose, 2024

	Romania	Poland	Hungary	EU average
Interest	7.1	5.1	11.6	4.1
Social protection (incl. pensions)	40.0	42.8	29.3	42.8
Health	15.2	14.3	11.3	16.1
Education	11.9	13.1	11.7	10.4
Economic affairs (transport, energy, farming)	19.8	14.4	18.4	11.5
General public services (excl. debt)	9.9	6.5	12.0	9.0
Police, courts, fire service	8.3	5.6	4.2	3.8
Defence	4.8	6.9	4.7	3.2
Environment, housing, culture	10.1	6.4	9.0	6.0
Total spent	127.2	115.1	112.2	106.8

2 · Deficit and debt

How big was Romania's deficit each year, and who was in government?

From 1995 to 2025, general government ran a deficit every year. It was 9.2% of GDP in 2024 and 7.8% in 2025. Consolidated gross general-government debt stood at 58.9% of GDP at the end of 2025.

The deficit is the gap between what the state spends and what it collects in a year. The debt is everything the state owes at year-end: bonds, loans and deposits, net of what public bodies owe each other. Short explanations in the glossary: budget deficit, public debt.

The bands at the top use gov.ro’s historical prime-minister list, keep its published precision — day or month — and include caretaker prime ministers. The current government is verified against the current Cabinet page and Decree 818/2026.

Top: prime ministers, per gov.ro’s historical list and Decree 818/2026. Middle: public debt, % of GDP. Bottom: deficit, % of GDP; blue = years with one prime minister all year. Shaded: EU excessive deficit procedure. Source: Eurostat gov_10dd_edpt1; 2022–2025, second EDP notification of 21 October 2026; 1995–2021, data retrieved on 22 April 2026.

A budget year does not usually belong to one prime minister. From 1995 to 2025, gov.ro shows the same prime minister from 1 January to 31 December in only 16 calendar years. Even then, spending depends on laws passed by Parliament and decisions taken in earlier years, and revenue depends on the economy. The table below puts those years side by side on one measure: that year's deficit and the change from the year before. Nothing is added up or ranked by person.

In which years did one prime minister serve the whole year, and what was the deficit?

Year	Prime minister all year (gov.ro)	Deficit, % of GDP	Change on previous year
1995	Nicolae Văcăroiu	2.0	—
1997	Victor Ciorbea	4.4	larger by 0.8 pp
2001	Adrian Năstase	3.5	smaller by 1.1 pp
2002	Adrian Năstase	1.9	smaller by 1.6 pp
2003	Adrian Năstase	1.4	smaller by 0.5 pp
2005	Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu	0.8	smaller by 0.3 pp
2006	Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu	2.1	larger by 1.3 pp
2007	Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu	2.8	larger by 0.7 pp
2009	Emil Boc	9.5	larger by 4.1 pp
2010	Emil Boc	7.1	smaller by 2.4 pp
2011	Emil Boc	5.6	smaller by 1.5 pp
2013	Victor Viorel Ponta	2.3	smaller by 1.5 pp
2014	Victor Viorel Ponta	1.2	smaller by 1.1 pp
2016	Dacian Julien Cioloș	2.5	larger by 2.0 pp
2022	Nicolae-Ionel Ciucă	6.5	smaller by 0.7 pp
2024	Marcel Ciolacu	9.2	larger by 2.6 pp

Context: 2009 was the first year of the financial crisis; 2020 the pandemic year (with three prime ministers on the gov.ro list). The change on the previous year shows the direction, not who decided it; a year's deficit does not measure a prime minister's responsibility.

Since 3 April 2020, Romania has been in the EU's excessive deficit procedure: the EU Council found its deficit above the 3%-of-GDP limit. It was in the same procedure once before, from 7 July 2009 to 21 June 2013. The Council has twice found that Romania took no “effective action”: on 26 July 2024 and on 20 June 2025. In between, in January 2025, it asked for the deficit to be corrected by 2030, and on 8 July 2025 it set a new limit on spending growth; the deadline stayed 2030. Romania is not alone in the procedure: Poland, Hungary, France and Italy, among others, are in it too.

Ilie Bolojan's government, sworn in on 23 June 2025, was dismissed by a no-confidence vote on 5 May 2026, with 281 of 285 valid votes. It then served in a caretaker capacity. On 27 September, gov.ro still listed Bolojan as prime minister; that was the Cabinet's status on that date. Update — 20 October 2026: Presidential Decree 818, published in Official Gazette 877, appointed the government led by Luca-Alexandru Niculescu. The current Cabinet page on gov.ro names Niculescu as prime minister, and the Interior Ministry confirms the office in a release dated 23 October.

All prime ministers since 1992 · government updated to 20 October 2026

Luca-Alexandru Niculescu 20 October 2026; appointed under Decree 818/2026; identified as prime minister by the Interior Ministry on 23 October
Ilie Bolojan 23 June 2025 – 20 October 2026; caretaker government after the 5 May no-confidence vote
Marian-Cătălin Predoiu 6 May 2025 – 23 June 2025
Marcel Ciolacu 15 June 2023 – 6 May 2025
Nicolae-Ionel Ciucă 25 November 2021 – 12 June 2023
Florin-Vasile Cîțu 23 December 2020 – 25 November 2021
Nicolae-Ionel Ciucă 7 December 2020 – 23 December 2020
Ludovic Orban 4 November 2019 – 7 December 2020
Vasilica-Viorica Dăncilă 29 January 2018 – 4 November 2019
Mihai-Viorel Fifor 16 January 2018 – 29 January 2018
Mihai Tudose June 2017 – January 2018
Sorin Grindeanu January 2017 – June 2017
Sorin Mihai Cîmpeanu November 2015
Dacian Julien Cioloș November 2015 – January 2017
Victor Viorel Ponta May 2012 – November 2015
Mihai Răzvan Ungureanu February 2012 – May 2012
Emil Boc December 2008 – February 2012
Eugen Bejinariu December 2004
Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu December 2004 – December 2008
Adrian Năstase December 2000 – December 2004
Alexandru Athanasiu December 1999
Mugur Isărescu December 1999 – December 2000
Radu Vasile 18 April 1998 – 21 December 1999
Gavril Dejeu 30 March – 17 April 1998
Victor Ciorbea 19 December 1996 – 30 March 1998
Nicolae Văcăroiu 20 November 1992 – 11 December 1996

3 · What it costs

How much does Romania pay in interest, compared with Poland, Hungary and the EU?

In 2025 interest took 8.0 lei of every 100 the Romanian state collected. Poland: 5.8. Hungary: 8.9. EU average: 4.1. In 2023–2025 Hungary paid more than Romania: in 2024, 11.6 lei per 100.

Interest paid by the state, lei per 100 lei collected. Calculated from Eurostat gov_10a_main (July 2026): interest (D.41) divided by total revenue.

In 2019 Romania paid 3.6 lei per 100, and in 2022, 4.4. Since then the figure has risen every year, as the debt grew and borrowing became dearer. The highest was in 1997: 14.6 lei per 100. The lowest, in 2007: 2.0.

As a share of GDP, interest rose from 1.2% in 2019 to 2.8% in 2025.

10-year government bond yield, annual average, %. Eurostat irt_lt_mcby_a (February 2026), from 2006, when Romania's series switches to the secondary market; August 2026 from the monthly series irt_lt_mcby_m.

The market benchmark for what borrowing costs the state is the 10-year government bond yield. In August 2026 the monthly average was 6.43% for Romania, 5.81% for Poland, 5.46% for Hungary and 3.19% for Germany. The annual average of this yield was 3.62% in 2021 and 6.96% in 2025.

4 · Rating

What is Romania's credit rating and what does it mean?

All three major agencies give Romania the lowest investment-grade rating: BBB− at S&P and Fitch, Baa3 at Moody’s. All with a negative outlook, meaning the rating may be cut. One notch lower, Romania's bonds would be speculative grade.

Rating scale (S&P and Fitch / Moody’s)

AAAAaainvestment grade
AAAa2investment grade
AA2investment grade
BBB+Baa1investment grade
BBBBaa2investment grade
BBB−Baa3Romaniainvestment grade
BB+Ba1speculative grade
BBBa2speculative grade
BB2speculative grade
CCCCaa2speculative grade

investment gradespeculative grade

S&P Global Ratings

BBB− / A-3

negative outlook · 2 October 2026

S&P could lower the ratings if the political deadlock hinders deficit reduction in 2027–2028 or external pressures intensify. The outlook could return to stable if fiscal and external deficits narrow. S&P says failure to pass the unitary public wage law is costing Romania €750 million in RRF grants.

S&P forecasts real GDP to contract by 0.5% in 2026 and grow by 2.25% in 2027. It expects the general-government deficit to fall from 6.25% of GDP in 2026 to 5.8% in 2027 and 5.0% in 2028, and the current-account deficit to reach 7.5% of GDP in 2026. Interest costs are projected to rise from 3.2% of GDP in 2026 to 3.5% in 2028, close to 10% of government revenue.

Moody’s Ratings

Baa3 / Prime-3

negative outlook · 7 August 2026

The outlook could return to stable if there is political consensus for the fiscal effort beyond 2026; as signals, the agency names a deficit-reducing 2027 budget passed before the end of 2026 and a public-sector wage law. The rating could fall if politics does not allow a large fiscal effort over several years, if reforms are reversed, or if geopolitical risk or the funding of the external deficit weighs more heavily.

In its forecast published on 7 August 2026, Moody’s expected a deficit of 5.8% of GDP in 2026 after 7.9% in 2025, with interest rising from 2.8% of GDP in 2025 to 3.3% in 2028.

Fitch Ratings

BBB−

negative outlook · 31 July 2026

Fitch affirmed BBB− with a negative outlook.

A sovereign rating is an agency's opinion of how likely the state is to pay its debts on time. It matters because many investors, under their own rules, buy only bonds rated BBB− or higher. In brief, in the glossary: sovereign rating.

The table in S&P's 15 May 2026 release uses the same ratio as this page, interest divided by revenue, and shows 7.1 for 2024 and 8.0 for 2025, the same numbers as here. Moody’s release gives interest as a share of GDP.

Sources and method

All revenue, spending, interest, deficit and debt figures cover general government as a whole (sector S13: central government, local authorities, social security), under the European system of accounts ESA 2010. They differ from the monthly cash budget execution published by Romania's Ministry of Finance.

The split by purpose comes from the COFOG functional classification, to 2024. Interest in the 100-lei chart is the same as in chapter 3 (interest D.41 divided by total revenue); the other purposes are split in proportion to COFOG spending excluding debt costs.

For deficit and debt, 2022–2025 values come from the second EDP notification of 21 October 2026; 1995–2021 values remain from the extract retrieved on 22 April 2026. D.41 interest in 2022–2025, as a share of GDP, matches the Romanian EDP notification table published on 13 October after rounding to one decimal. Revenue and interest per 100 lei use gov_10a_main from July 2026; the spending split uses COFOG from September 2026.

Ratings are taken only from the agencies' own releases.