Central Bank has three installments left, Romanian government paid fully, says IMF

The government has paid the loan contracted from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) while the National Bank of Romania (BNR) has three installments left, the last one scheduled in January, according to IMF resident representative for Romania and Bulgaria, Guillermo Tolosa, quoted by Mediafax.

The comment comes after prime minister Victor Ponta announced on Wednesday that Romania has fully paid its debts, the IMF representative stating that Romania has debts which vary, some being paid by the government and some by BNR.

“This year we are done and we have not even one dollar of debt to the International Monetary Fund, we paid with difficulty what was borrowed and it was spent well, badly, rather badly, during 2010-2011. The government along with political leaders will discuss the opportunity and conditions of a new agreement with the international financial institutions,” said Victor Ponta.

The current agreement with international financial institutions, amounting to EUR 4 billion, has a preventive character and expires at the end of September, unsuccessfully, since the government has not fulfilled its commitments.

Previously, Romania successfully concluded two agreements with IMF, EU and the World Bank, worth EUR 20 billion and EUR 5 billion. The funds from the second agreement, signed in 2011 and completed in 2013, again preventive in character, were not accessed by authorities.

Read more about

Leonardo Badea (BNR): Financial education – strengthening the resilience of the population and financial stability in the context of overlapping crises

read more

For the first financing agreement (2009 – 2011) the IMF contributed EUR 13 billion, the rest coming from the European Commission and other international financial institutions.

Natalia Martian