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IMF, Romania Agree On 2011 Budget Figures

The International Monetary Fund and the Romanian authorities have already agreed on next year's budget parameters, Jeffey Franks, head of the IMF mission to Bucharest, said Wednesday.

The 2011 budget must be adjusted according to necessities, said Franks when asked by journalists about his view on the parliament's decisions to cut the value added tax level for staple food and to lift the income tax on small pensions. Romanian lawmakers adopted Tuesday a bill cutting to 5% from 24% the VAT level for bread, meat, milk, edible oil and sugar. The parliament also adopted an amendment to the Tax Code that exempts small pensions from a 16% income tax. An IMF mission is currently in Bucharest to review Romania's progress under the terms of a EUR13 billion arrangement.

Romanian Govt To Ask IMF To Accept Healthcare, Education System Hiring Thaw

The Romanian Government decided in its meeting Wednesday to ask the International Monetary Fund to allow authorities to unfreeze jobs in the health and education systems, as well as in other sectors that need more employees. Romanian Prime Minister Emil Boc said this summer that authorities would analyze the situation in September to see how many jobs can be unfrozen in the healthcare sector, justice, administration and education.An IMF mission is currently in Bucharest to review Romania's progress under the terms of a EUR13 billion arrangement.

Jeffrey Franks: Presently figures referring to evolution of Romania's economy look good enough

The figures reflecting the evolution of Romania's economy look good enough for the time being, but the examination to be made by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will just begin, said on Wednesday head of the IMF mission for Romania Jeffrey Franks, who came to the Ministry of Labour, Family and Social Protection to begin the programme of the delegation.

The figures reflecting the evolution of Romania's economy look good enough for the time being, but the examination will just begin, it is only the first day of our visit to Bucharest, said Franks.The head of the IMF mission made it clear that the pension law and the unitary pay law were two of the subjects to be dealt with at the Ministry of Labour and that they would see what the wishes of the Romanian Government were.

Jeffrey Franks emphasized the fact that, for the IMF, it was important that the pension and unitary pay laws should be approved as soon as possible. They will see if there are advantages in raising the level of the minimum salary and the the risks if this happened, explained the IMF official.Attending the talks, Romania's representative to the IMF Mihai Tanasescu said that the unitary pay law must necessarily be approved by the end of October.

'I hope that Parliament will adopt this law in good time. As for the pension law, it is to be discussed again as I hope it will be approved as soon as possible,' added Mihai Tanasescu.He also said that he hoped that both laws should be adopted in good time so that there should be no problems in carrying out the programme with the IMF.

As for the willingness of the IMF to accept an increase in the budget deficit if the set of measures (the increase in the minimum salary to over 700 lei, the decrease in the flat tax to 12 percent and the cut in the salary contributions) proposed by the Democratic Liberal Party is applied, Mihai Tanasescu made it clear that 'during the talks with the Romanian authorities the budget deficit has been established at 4.4 percent.'

The sixth mission of the IMF meant to assess the economic performances of Romania in keeping with the provisions of the stand-by agreement and the supplementary letter of intent arrived in Bucharest. The talks with the Romanian authorities will begin on Wednesday and will be held till November 1.

Romania has so far received 11.27 billion euros from the IMF as part of a total loan amounting to 13.15 billion euros, to which one must add the 3.5 billion euros from the EC, part of a 5 billion euro loan, as well as the 300 million euros from the World Bank.The total support package for Romania, agreed upon on May 4, 2009 with the big world financiers, amounts to a total 20 billion euros.

Collecting and attracting EU funds, arrears, topics approached during MFP, IMF talks

The agenda of the talks between the officials of the Romanian Ministry of Public Finance (MFP) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) schedules issues such as the improvement of the tax collection, the allocation of investment funds, EU funds attracting and the arrears, FinMin Gheorghe Ialomiteanu said.

'We'll table them the figures we currently have. First, we are to analyze the activity so far, whether we have achieved the goals, and afterwards, wel hold talks, which may have any results. We must make the best decisions for Romania. We will analyze the current situation and the prospects of 2011. As long as talks are held I cannot pronounce on a certain issue. We'll also discuss what is the best for Romania, and it will be this what we back up, FinMin Ialomiteanu said, pointing out that technical discussions are taking place at the MFP, on Wednesday, and he will meet with the IMF officials, on Thursday.

Romania's Finance Minister also underlined that topics such as the improvement of the tax collection, the allocation of higher amounts to the investments, supplying money for projects co-financing, will be also approached 'because there are problems with attracting the EU funds. We also have to discuss with Romania's Central Bank (BNR) and see how we can improve the EU funds attraction.'

FinMin Ialomiteanu also stressed that Romania wants to continue the cooperation with the IMF, because the agreement with the IMF, the European Union and the World Bank was a good thing for Romania because our country was offered more credibility on the financial markets, and talks on a fresh accord will be held.

As for the arrears from abroad, FinMin Ialomiteanu said it was observed the agreement with the IMF and that 'we offered the money and the Healthcare House and the Health Ministry will present the way they got the arrears extinct.'

Labour minister has 'strictly technical' meeting with IMF officials

Romanian Minister of Labour, Family Issues and Social Protection Ioan-Nelu Botis had a 'strictly technical' meeting with the visiting officials of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Commission on Wednesday that focused on the pension law and the unified public salary law.

'We agreed to develop such discussions in the next two weeks so that we may present clarifications related to the pension law and the deadline by which it can be passed by Parliament, after we modify its article referring the equal retirement age for women and men', Botis explained.

He said the talks with the IMF also focused on the unified public salary law, which is still undergoing simulations and talks with the employers and trade unions.

'It is Parliament's exclusive task to finalise the pension law and send it to President Traian Basescu for promulgation', the minister added.The Labour Ministry leadership will meet the trade union leaders in the administration and education on Thursday to discuss the unified public pay law. 'We are still working on the unified pay indicators for 2011', said Botis, who will unveil the law on the unified pay for the public sector workers at the Government's meeting next week.

Government must re-negotiate with IMF other budget parameters, employers' unions say

Romania's Government will have to re-negotiate with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) other budget parameters, said on Wednesday the president of Employers Union Confederation UGIR-1903, Cezar Coraci. 'The 2011 budget deficit, of 4.4 percent of GDP, is totally unsustainable. After the first seven months, economy is down by 3.9 percent and not by 1.5 - 2 percent, as agreed with the IMF', said UGIR-1903 president. He added employers' unions requested that the Finance Ministry (MFP) send them the 2011 budget draft before the meeting between employers' unions and the IMF delegation, scheduled for Friday.

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Tags: pension salary labour ministry minister talks percent unified public funds euros romania meeting monetary billion international figures budget authorities romanian wednesday romanias franks bucharest mission bnr euro mfp

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