The figure was the highest reading among EU countries, up from 7.7% in the same period of 2025 and 7.3% in the same period of 2024.
The figures prompted political accusations.
The data fuelled criticism from the Social Democratic Party (PSD), which, in a press release and statements by party leaders and economic advisers, accused the government headed by former prime minister Ilie Bolojan of poor performance, Digi24 reported.
PSD argued that the government deferred payments to contractors to keep the cash deficit reported by the Finance Ministry down.
The party, which left the ruling coalition in April before returning to government in October, is seeking a thorough assessment of public finances at the time it took over the executive. It pointed to the much more optimistic official data published by the Finance Ministry, which showed the budget deficit falling to 2.00% of GDP in H1 2026 from 3.63% in the same period of 2025.
The Finance Ministry explained most, but not all, of the discrepancy.
The ministry, headed by Alexandru Nazare under both prime minister Ilie Bolojan and the newly appointed PM Luca Niculescu, responded to PSD, explaining the technical reasons behind the two sets of figures.
The Eurostat and Finance Ministry figures are not directly comparable: the former are seasonally adjusted and express the quarterly deficit as a share of GDP, while the latter are not seasonally adjusted and express the deficit as a share of annual GDP. However, the ESA figures, particularly those that are not seasonally adjusted, show abnormal variations that the ministry’s response explains only in general terms.
There is also a significant discrepancy between the ESA and cash methodologies on the expenditure side, in addition to the revenue discrepancy, which may partly reflect the different treatment of EU funds, whose absorption increased substantially in 2026.
The Finance Ministry acknowledged “recorded obligations” as a source of the discrepancy. Higher expenditure under the ESA methodology reflects these obligations, which encompass more than just unpaid bills. They are not included in government expenditure under the ministry’s cash methodology.
“Part of this improvement [in the budget deficit], however, comes from inflows of European funds, neutral in the ESA methodology, and from the management of the payment calendar, which in ESA is reflected in the recorded obligations,” the Finance Ministry explained.
The scale of the expenditure discrepancy - and therefore of the recorded obligations - still requires further explanation.
Eurostat data showed that Romania’s budget revenues were RON 9.0 billion lower under the ESA methodology than under the cash methodology in H1 2026, compared with revenues that were RON 7.5 billion higher under ESA in the same period of 2025. Meanwhile, expenditure in H1 2026 was RON 19.4 billion higher under ESA than under the cash methodology, against a discrepancy of just RON 7.5 billion in the same period of 2025.
This unusually wide gap on the expenditure side requires more clarification than the Finance Ministry’s reference to the “management of the payment calendar” provides.
Romania’s public deficit narrowed by only 0.2pp to 3.4% of GDP in H1 under ESA.
According to non-seasonally adjusted data published by Eurostat, Romania’s general government budget deficit narrowed by only 0.7% y/y to RON 69.3 billion in H1 under ESA, compared with a 41.2% y/y contraction to RON 41.0 billion under the cash definition. Under Eurostat’s ESA methodology, the deficit-to-GDP ratio edged down to 3.4% in H1 2026, from 3.6% in the same period of 2025 and 3.7% in 2024.
Government revenues grew faster under the Romanian government’s cash accounting than under the ESA methodology, rising by 10.3% y/y versus 4.9%. At the same time, government expenditure increased by only 0.8% y/y under the cash methodology, compared with 3.9% under ESA.