The government cuts spending in public institutions by 20%, one newspaper reads on Friday. Elsewhere in the news, Finance minister Sebastian Vladescu declared that salaries can be protected by the 25% decrease if 100,000 budgetary personnel will be laid off. On a lighter tone, Aerosmith and Reamonn reach Bucharest today, to perform for the first time in Romania.

PM Boc announced that all institutions and public authorities in Romania will have to cut spending by 20%, Cotidianul reads. The cut targets gas, internal and external trips, furniture, telephone costs, PM Boc said. He added that the government imposed a 50% cut in gas use.

The measures will be implemented by the end of the year and the government issued an emergency ordinance.

Finance minister Sebastian Vladescu declared that budgetary salaries might be saved from the 25% cut if the government will lay off at least 100,000 budgetary personnel, Gandul reads. He said that Romania committed to lay off 70,000 people by next year.

Prompted to comment Vladescu's declarations, PM Boc avoided a clear cut answer and said that last year the government laid off 36,000 personnel from the budgetary system. He added that the final number will result after analyzing all ministries, all structures, agencies so that the decision can be based on facts.

So far, even though the reshuffle was announced as early as last year, the government does not have any analysis that reveals when and how many lay offs will be made. The solution to shrink the budgetary apparatus without affecting the state's activity might be to lay off those who were hired for other reasons than merit.

The budgetary apparatus will function even better if a third of the people are laid off, National Central Bank officials declared for the newspapers. @N