IMF mission begins fourth evaluation of precautionary stand-by agreement with Romania

The delegation will be in Bucharest till February 6 and will meet the Romanian authorities as well as the representatives of the political parties, the trade unions, the business environment, banks and the civil society.

The conclusions of the mission will be made known after the end of the visit.

The previous mission of the joint delegation of the IMF, the European Commission and the World Bank was carried out between October 25 and November 7, 2011, for the third evaluation of the budget policies as part of the precautionary stand-by agreement with Romania.

At the end of the evaluation made late last year chief of the IMF mission for Romania Jeffrey Franks said that the authorities managed to meet all the conditions requested by the Fund and were within the parameters that have been established.

The stand-by agreement between Romania and the IMF started on March 31, 2011 and is a precautionary one, amounting to 3.1 billion SDR, namely 3.6 billion euros, accounting for about 300 percent of the share Romania has with the IMF.

The new agreement with the IMF will cover 24 months and is to fulfilled concurrently with a new precautionary agreement with the European Union, worth 1.4 billion euros, as well as with a 0.4 billion-euro loan from the World Bank.

As it is a precautionary agreement, the money from the IMF can be only taken in case of an out-of-the-ordinary situation, such as a speculative attack on the leu, triggered off by a crisis in the region, materialized in a massive loss of reserves and confidence, or in the case in which the Treasury fails to get financing at acceptable costs two or three times.

The entire sum of money, 3.6 billion euros, the Fund will place at Romania's disposal through the new precautionary agreement will be meant for the National Bank.

Other articles