Money from sale of minority stakes should be invested in infrastructure

Minister of Economy, Trade and Business Environment Adriean Videanu told a press conference that he proposed the representatives of the International Monetary Fund and the European Commission that the amounts raised from privatization deals and the sale of minority stakes be used as sources to support investments.

"I raised an important issue related to revenues from privatization and the sale of minority stakes. According to Eurostat, all these revenues are 'below the line' in the budget and are not included in the current revenues at the calculation of the consolidated budget. I said, however, that given that we are in a situation of crisis and these are important sources, we could think of a way to use these amounts - outside the IMF and EC assessments - as co-financing sources forEU funding or to support strong investments in infrastructure,"said Videanu.

He added that the Eurostat registration documentation requires revenues from privatization deals to be "below the line" and that they could be used to finance the deficit, as a non-inflationary source that does not entail costs, but "it is highly important for Romania to benefit from additional sources.

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