Economics
Romania in Spending Bind as Populists Battle Ratings Firms
- Government under pressure to add pension hike to Covid-19 aid
- Sovereign credit on brink of junk at major rating companies
A police officer and soldiers halt a driver while enforcing lockdown measures at Piata Romana traffic intersection in Bucharest, Romania, on May 5.
Photographer: Ioana Epure/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Romania is stuck in a bind over spending as populists push measures that risk a sovereign-credit downgrade to junk.
The eastern European nation has joined the rest of the continent in ramping up public spending to ease the economic pain wrought by Covid-19. But opposition forces, who can outvote the minority government in parliament, also want to ram through pension and child-benefit hikes.