Romania To Verify State Companies Data After EU Cites Uncertainties On 2010 Budget Figures

04.26.2011 By Florentina Dragu

Romania's Finance Ministry will verify the accuracy of the financial figures reported by a series of state-run companies, after the European Union expressed reserve on the quality of the budget deficit data sent by the country.

Romania's Finance Ministry will verify the accuracy of the financial figures reported by a series of state-run companies, after the European Union expressed reserve on the quality of the budget deficit data sent by the country.

The investigation will be carried out together with representatives of the central bank and the national statistics institute (INS), the latter said in a statement Tuesday.

Earlier today, the European Union's statistics office Eurostat said was reserved on the quality of budget data reported by Romania for 2010, citing uncertainties on the impact of some public corporations on the government deficit and on the reporting of ESA95 categories "other accounts receivable and payable.

"Eurostat has voiced such reservations before, on the data sent by other states, including Greece, Denmark and the United Kingdom (including for the most recent data sent on March 31 2011)," INS said.

It said the authorities in Bucharest decided to verify the financial data of a series of public companies for the 2007-2009 period to identify potential discrepancies between their financial and non-financial accounts.

The revised data will be sent to Eurostat in time for the final 2010 government deficit and debt data due for release in September, INS added.

Last year, the European Commission has revised up by 0.3 percentage points its estimations on Romania's government deficit in 2008 and 2009, following a reclassification of state-owned companies inside the budget sector.