Romania still faces the risk of a sovereign credit rating downgrade, although the government has presented 'strong arguments' for maintaining the country's current rating, acting Finance Minister Alexandru Nazare said on Monday.

'The Finance Ministry has presented all the data at its disposal, including the latest budget execution figures, in detail to all the rating agencies. We have presented strong arguments as to why Romania deserves to maintain its rating. We have done everything within our power at the technical level to prevent a downgrade, but I do not rule out this risk - it still exists. We will see Fitch's report later this week and Moody's report next week. Fitch's report, which will be published this week, is particularly important,' Nazare told reporters at the Senate.

Asked about the draft public-sector pay law, Nazare said the Finance Ministry's position remained unchanged from the spring.

'We sent our opinion to Minister Manole in the spring, explaining that the fiscal-budgetary strategy provides fiscal space of 8 billion lei for 2027. If additional funding is needed, it will have to be offset. Whether the amount is 11, 12 or 13 billion, it will have to be compensated, depending, of course, on this year's performance, what we decide at the first and second budget revisions. We must take into account that such compensation is necessary. This is a decision for all governing parties, not for a single minister. We also have to bear in mind that this public-sector pay milestone is worth a significant amount - 770 million euros, almost 3.4 billion lei. If we fail to meet it, we will have to find measures to accommodate that penalty in the 2026 budget,' he said.

Commenting on court-awarded payments due to magistrates, Nazare said the issue had persisted for several years and involved 'very large sums'.

'When the state budget was adopted, Parliament made a number of changes concerning allocations for magistrates. If the court ruling stands, the penalties are extremely high, at nearly 9 million euros per day. For comparison, the penalties relating to Pfizer amount to 81,000 euros per day. I believe we need to reach a solution that allows these payments to be responsibly staggered over the coming years. By responsibly, I mean a schedule that also reflects our capacity to incorporate these amounts into the fiscal-budgetary strategy. We cannot have very small amounts one year followed by very large ones that ignore the budgetary realities of each year. I hope such a rescheduling agreement can be reached as soon as possible,' Nazare said. AGERPRES (RO - writing by: Livia Popescu; EN - writing by: Simona Iacob)