Jeffrey Franks (IMF): An international coalition has been created to help Romania out

International Monetary Fund (IMF) experts have come to Romania to make sure Romania has solutions for the economic state in which it finds itself; an international coalition has been created to help Romania out, head of the IMF review mission Jeffrey Frank said on Friday in Bucharest at the end of talks with an official delegation of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) headed by the party's chief Mircea Geoana.

Franks also said the conclusions of the ongoing second review mission of Romania's economic programme will be disseminated these days after the IMF delegation has met officials of all the parliamentary parties of Romania.

Jeffrey Franks (IMF): Outlooks are promising for the future
 
The Romanian economic outlooks are promising for the future, said on Friday Jeffrey Franks, the chief of the IMF mission to Romania at the end of a visit with the delegations of the Social Democratic Party (PSD). 'I had a very serious discussion with leaders of various parties and the meeting was very lucrative and interesting and we'll try to continue talks with other political leaders. The problems Romania is faced with are not problems which can be solved by a sole political party, they shave to be solved by a board, a coalition of forces able to give assurances Romania has solutions to the current economic problems. If this will be solved, I am convinced the perspectives are promising for the future,' said the official of the International Monetary Fun. Asked whether in the first months of next year Romania will continue to receive the money from the IMF, Jeffrey Franks said this depends on the steps that have to be taken by then.

An IMF delegation is in Bucharest October 28 - November 9 to initiate discussions with authorities on the second review of the stand-by arrangement.During this visit, the IMF mission will evaluate the country's recent economic performance and will discuss with authorities the economic objectives for the coming year, along with the policy measures and structural reforms needed to reach those objectives.

Successful completion of the second review will be followed by an IMF's Executive Board meeting in December to consider the review, which involves a disbursement of SDR 1,409 million or about 1.5 billion euros.The IMF visit takes place jointly with teams from the European Commission and the World Bank. The World Bank will discuss the conditions for the disbursement of the second loan under a support policy programme worth 360 million euros, while the European Commission mission will analyse the conditions for the disbursement of a 1-billion-euro installment.

Tanasescu: The agreement between the IMF and Romania goes ahead

Romania's agreement with the IMF "didn't derail", it "goes ahead", assures the Romanian representative at the IMF discussions Mihai Tanasescu. He underlined that the programme between Romania and the foreign financers is continuing, "and that is why I believe better sooner than later and I want to stress my wish that political maturity should prevail this time in Romania", Tanasescu declared for RFI.

The fear of losing the IMF loan has increased lately. But Tanasescu announced that the IMF, European Commission and the World Bank continue to stick to the programme developed with the authorities in Bucharest. The three delegations will return to Romania in January, should the country have a new Government by then. Romania's current problem is the 2010 budget, which hasn't been approved yet. The request of the funding bodies is that the budget is voted in due time, meaning December 2009, preferably before the International Monetary Fund executive managers' board meeting.

According to Tanasescu, this imposes a very tight schedule, but the document with significance for Romania could be approved by the Parliament in due course. Should this fail, the authorities and the funding institutions will continue to negotiate and a new delegation will return to Romania in January at the soonest to settle on the way to implement the agreed measures.