Beside the usual fiscal instruments like taxes and intergovernmental grants, sub-central governments have access to additional revenue through borrowing. When assessing the fiscal decentralization process, a key issue is the local borrowing autonomy, even though the fiscal decentralization literature has devoted surprisingly little attention to this topic. This paper examines the implications of sub-central government borrowing and the reasons behind the borrowing constrains they face. Based on the methodology developed by IADB, we have calculated a Borrowing Autonomy Index for Romania and compared the results to other countries providing a valuable insight on the fiscal decentralization specific features.