Romania secures further IMF funding

“We have reached agreement at staff level on the second and third reviews of the IMF-supported SBA. Subject to approval of this agreement by Fund Management, and, subsequently, by the Executive Board, both the third (SDR 1,409 million or about 1.5 billion Euro) and the fourth disbursements (SDR 766 million or about 0.8 billion Euro) would become available. We will propose to our Board that half of these disbursements be allocated to fiscal financing. The Executive Board meeting is tentatively planned for mid-February,” said Franks. Referring to ’s economic trends Franks said: “We expect that in 2009 the drop in growth will be contained to about seven per cent, and that growth will become positive for 2010, increasing to about 1.3 per cent.”  
The IMF official also indicated that available figures suggested that the end-December targets were observed with the exception of the one relating to arrears of the general government. “The 2009 cash budget deficit target of 7.3 per cent of GDP was thus achieved. However, indicative targets for current spending were not fully observed, suggesting that further efforts are needed to control recurrent expenditure so as to direct more resources to investment.”  
He also emphasized that the IMF welcomes the proposed structural reform agenda, which is expected to increase the efficiency of the public sector and make the economy more competitive and flexible.  
The IMF mission worked closely with missions from the European Commission and the World Bank, which are also supporting to ’s Economic Program.