The Central Bank of Belgium: There is no more money to support the population

Belgium no longer has the budgetary capacity to provide large-scale support to the population amid rising gas and gasoline prices. This was stated by the head of the country's Central Bank, Pierre Wunsch, said in an interview with RTBF that the country has.

"We no longer have the money to act again in the way we were able to soften the blow and help people in 2022 during the Ukrainian crisis or shortly before that during COVID. And, of course, targeted assistance to people in a particularly vulnerable situation cannot be ruled out. But we no longer have room for maneuver to mitigate the crisis with public funds," he said.

According to him, this is probably the first time in a long time that a country is entering a crisis with a deficit that is already too high and unsustainable.

Recall, against the background of the rejection of Russian energy carriers and the conflict in the Middle East in the EU, gas prices have increased by 70%. At the same time, the European Commission in November 2025 predicted that Belgium's deficit would be the highest in the eurozone in 2026 and 2027 relative to GDP — at 5.5% in 2026 and 5.9% in 2027.