Romania might receive next tranche from IMF in January

Romania will meet in due time the requirements imposed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), so that it could get the next tranche from the loan under the Stand-By Arrangement in January, Minister of Public Finance Gheorghe Pogea on Monday stated.

'I have no doubts we will be able to meet all the conditions imposed by the Fund', Pogea said.

He also said that the 2010 budget should be submitted to the Parliament by the new government to be installed.

'The sooner the new government is installed, the better. As regards the MFP, we are currently preparing the budget from a technical viewpoint, following the series of public policies, especially those related to the allotment of resources for investments, to be worked later by the new majority', the Minister of Finance said.

On Monday took place at the MFP headquarters a debate on the budget with IMF experts and Secretaries of State and also other specialists from the MFP.

'First of all, we are discussing on the 2010 budget with the technical experts from the IMF and the EC. We hope to come to an agreement at least on the big figures, on the revenues and expenditures projections respectively', Pogea said.

He also specified that, from a macroeconomic viewpoint, there were recorded no fundamental changes, with the economic growth to stand at 0.5 percent and the budget deficit at 5.9 percent of GDP.

Asked whether there existed any chances Romania to receive the money from the IMF by end-2009, Pogea said: 'I don't know. We have already done our homework for 2009 and we have managed to secure the necessary financing for the entire year'.

'I want to assure every person who is depending on the public budget that the money do exist. I have discussed this morning with the Secretary of State about the strategy for the first quarter of 2010, in order to establish more clearly our needs to come', the Minister said.

The MFP official also added that the money existed to end 2009 without trouble, with the commitment to maintain the inflation target at 7.3 percent of the GDP to be observed too.

'Of course we would like to see it fall below 7.3, but if there are to be recorded any deviations, they could only be insignificant', Pogea said.

The arrangement concluded by Romania with IMF, worth 19.95 billion euros, carries a 24-month maturity, with the Fund following to transfer to Romania 12.95 billion euros in total, in eight tranches. The remaining of the amount will come from the EC, WB, EBRD and EIB, as following: 5 billion euros from the European Commission (EC), 1 billion from the World Bank (WB), and 1 billion euro from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the European Investment Bank (EIB).

Agerpres