BUCHAREST (Romania), December 20 (SeeNews) – Romania's parliament on Thursday cleared the government's 2008 budget draft, which projects a budget deficit of 2.7% of gross domestic product (GDP), up from a gap of 2.4% of GDP targeted for this year.
The 2008 budget, drafted by the Liberals-led government, sets total revenue at 172.8 billion lei ($70.238 billion/48.943 billion euro) and total spending at 184.7 billion lei, including payments to the EU budget. The parliament approved the budget in a 249-93 vote.
The Black Sea state, which joined the EU in January, expects its GDP to grow by a real 6.5% next year.
Romania's Finance and Economy Minister Varujan Vosganian estimated in September that the country's GDP will grow by a real 6.0 to 6.5% this year.
(1 euro = 3.5306 Romanian lei)