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IMF officials in Romania, renegotiation of agreement in sight

A team of specialists in tax administration of the International Monetary Fund has been touring the ministries this past week, gathering data for the first evaluation of the stand-by agreement from August, according to the daily ‘Gandul.' This is the second IMF mission in Romania in July, after the first one had focused on emphasizing the fiscal responsibility of the Government from Bucharest. On the other side of the doors, the unions and the owners' associations also await to be consulted until the final conclusions.

Ioan Cezar Coraci, president of the General Union of Industrialists from Romania - UGIR-1903, believes that the Government must find solutions to fund the budgetary deficit, bigger than the initial IMF estimate of 4.6 per cent. "For that purpose, it is not necessary to increase the fiscal pressure through the rise of taxes, nor to decrease the public expenditures incurred with pensions and salaries, but to increase the revenues, namely the investments," Coraci told us. He hopes that the discussions with the financial institution will approach also the problem of a real plan of measures against crisis.

What does the imf mission find in Bucharest, in figures?

The intention of PM Emil Boc to request the financial institution the permission to increase the investments in the third quarter is known. But, the result will be a budgetary deficit bigger than that which was cast in stone - of 4.6 per cent. A decrease of the revenues to the budget in the second and third quarters is also expected, after the state's revenues decreased by about 7 per cent in the first five months, but the expenditures also rose by almost 7 per cent. Wherefrom a budgetary deficit of RON 11.3 bln after five months, vs. the IMF target of RON 12.13 bln by the middle of the year. Not least, the official predictions about the economy have also changed from the economic growth of 2.5 per cent to a fall of 4 per cent, and even a recession of 8 per cent of GDP.

Daianu: It is necessary to restructure expenditures

It is necessary to discuss again the initially established parameters, meaning to renegotiate the agreement, which can be hailed, estimates Professor Daniel Daianu, former minister of finance.

"It is a renegotiation imposed by reality. On the one hand, the effects of the international crisis on the economies from East Europe have been underestimated. On another hand, there are also internal effects, because we could not restructure the budgetary expenditures," Professor Daianu declared for ‘Gandul.' In other words, it is not necessary to reduce severely the budgetary expenditures - a measure that would not back the economy - but only to restructure them, the former minister stresses.

 

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Tags: expenditures budgetary agreement romania