Romania To Adopt 2009 Draft Budget Jan 29, To Allocate One Fifth of Spending to Investments

"The budget's main element [...] provides for economic development and supporting the business environment, and from this point of view we consider the allocation of 20% of it for investments," Boc told journalists on Friday.

He said the investments will aim to ensure "massive aid" to the country's poor infrastructure, including in the transport, environment and education sectors.

The cabinet unveiled last week the main components of the 2009 budget bill - nominal gross domestic product (GDP) projection of 579 billion lei ($173 billion/135 billion euro) and budget shortfall of 2.0%. It sees the country's economic growth at 2.5% this year, compared to an estimated growth of close to eight percent in 2008.

When Romania's bipartite government coalition took office in December, it withdrew from parliament the 2009 budget draft submitted by the previous cabinet, and said it would propose a new blueprint to take into account the impact of the global financial turmoil on the Romanian economy.

(1 euro = 4.2922 Romanian lei)