Former Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu expressed strong disagreement with a recent economic situation review conducted by the National Institute of Statistics (INS). Ciolacu, who currently serves as the President of the Buzău County Council, believes he deserves an award in economics for the economic fluctuations during his time in office and criticized the current government for attempting to “cover up” the reality with the latest revisions. He also directly addressed the current Prime Minister, stating, “Ilie, calm down and notify people the truth.”
“To discover, after two years, that Ciolacu actually had two quarters of decline and four of growth… it’s a nebulous situation now, two years later. People, I’ve been sitting with my phone in my hand since the news broke, due to the fact that I think someone is going to call me to give me an award in economics. We all went through a recession and didn’t feel it; on the contrary, things were great, we had jobs, we had consumption. Now consumption has collapsed. We are unique in the world: a state, a country went through a recession and we didn’t feel it. Romanians are sensitive people, they are not insensitive, but to not feel the recession that would have hit us hard?” Ciolacu stated.
The former Prime Minister also presented the document from 2024 in which INS announced the figures at that time, which presented a positive economic situation, different from the current revisions.
“For the first time in history, for the first time in the history of Romania, the figures are being revised after two years. No one has ever heard of such a thing. I allow myself to have the paper with me showing what the National Institute of Statistics said when referring to the quarters that, in the meantime, have turned from plus to minus. At first, we were told we had economic growth of 0.4%. They came and corrected me and said we had 0.7%. (…) Now, after two years, they come and say it wasn’t a plus, it was a minus,” he said.
Ciolacu also accused the current Prime Minister of attempting to conceal poor economic figures by revising the situation from two years ago.
“Let the great specialists from the Government come forward. I kindly ask them to leave the state institutions alone and let them do their job and not endeavor to cover up, using state institutions, the mess they have brought us into. Let the National Institute of Statistics explain to me, which praised me, how it comes up with this data after two years. I believe You’ll see problems during the time of Ponta, Dăncilă and all the prime ministers. I’ll say it again: Ilie, calm down and tell people the truth.”
Former Prime Minister Accuses Data Manipulation
Former PSD Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu claimed on February 13, 2026, that the economic data for 2024 had been “doctored” to turn economic growth into a recession, allegedly to downplay the economic disaster during Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan’s term.
“They doctored the data after two years, turning economic growth into a recession just to try to mask the economic disaster during Bolojan’s term! What we have is the most blatant manipulation of statistics, demonstrating the current Prime Minister’s desperation after the nearly 2% economic decline in the last quarter, which is four times higher than all analysts’ expectations,” Ciolacu wrote on Facebook.
Romania in Technical Recession
Gross Domestic Product in the fourth quarter of 2025 was, in real terms, 1.9% lower compared to the third quarter of 2025, according to data released on February 14, 2026, by the National Institute of Statistics (INS). To enter a technical recession, the Romanian economy needed two consecutive quarters of contraction in Gross Domestic Product, a fact confirmed by INS on Friday.
The Gross Domestic Product – seasonally adjusted data – estimated for the third quarter of 2025 was 486,793 billion current price lei, 0.2% lower – in real terms – than the previous quarter and up 1.5% compared to the third quarter of 2024, according to data released by INS on January 9, 2026.
Editor : Andreea Rubica
