IMF mission extends stay in Romania till May 9

The fourth visiting mission of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that is currently assessing the way Romania fulfilled the conditionalities of the Stand-By Agreement will extend its stay in Bucharest until May 9, informs a release by the chief of the IMF Office for Romania and Bulgaria, Tonny Lybek.

A statement issued by Tonny Lybek on April 19 announced that the IMF mission would be in Bucharest between April 27 - May 7. The Romanian authorities and the IMF are weighing several options to cover the budget deficit, which, according to unofficial sources, include increasing the VAT to 22 percent and the flat tax to 20 percent or putting up the flat tax to 20 percent and keeping the VAT at 19 percent.

According to sources close to negotiations, the Romanian authorities and the IMF mission are negotiating a budget deficit of 6.3 - 6.5 percent of the GDP for 2010, but still have to agree on the budget gap that needs to be plugged in by collection boosting/expenditure cutting measures.

AGERPRES