Inflation should gradually decline this year, without further inflationary spikes, and towards the end of the year it should approach 4%, Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan told TVR 1 national television broadcaster on Tuesday evening.
'All these corrective measures will effectively be concluded once these packages are adopted, and what we must do in the coming period, alongside ensuring responsible spending of public money and drawing up a serious budget built on responsibility and predictability, is to stimulate economic growth in areas where this is possible - for example, by ensuring the financing of investments during this year and by absorbing European funds, to give just one example - so that from mid-year onwards we begin to see the effects of these measures. From the middle of the year we should see a decline; therefore, inflation should gradually decrease this year, as we no longer have inflationary surges, and this would mean that towards the end of the year inflation should reach a level close to 4%,' Ilie Bolojan said on Tuesday evening.
He explained that continuing to ensure a portfolio of investments in the economy to stimulate production will lead to a rebalancing of consumption.
'Moreover, through the measures taken to maintain an important investment portfolio, a line of financing will be secured particularly for the construction sector, as well as for other sectors contributing to economic growth, and overall consumption will be rebalanced. Consider that in recent years, a significant part of Romania's economic stimulus has been based on consumption. That is the most basic form of stimulus. When we shift towards production-based stimulus, whether we like it or not, the capacity to spend will be based on what we produce. And clearly, in recent months we have experienced an economic contraction because we are no longer consuming what we borrow; we have reduced borrowing as a general approach, and we cannot consume more than we can afford,' Prime Minister Bolojan added.
The annual inflation rate fell slightly to 9.62% in January, from 9.69% in December, as services rose by 11.59%, non-food stuffs by 9.99%, and food stuffs by 7.86%, according to data published on Monday by the National Institute of Statistics (INS).
'The consumer price index in January 2026 compared with December 2025 was 100.86%. The annual inflation rate in January 2026 compared with January 2025 was 9.6%. The average rate of change in consumer prices over the last 12 months (February 2025 - January 2026) compared with the previous 12 months (February 2024 - January 2025) was 7.7%,' the press release reads.
The National Bank of Romania (BNR) forecasts that inflation will reach 3.7% at the end of 2026, compared with 3% in its previous forecast, according to data presented in November by the BNR Governor, Mugur Isarescu.
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