IMF approves EUR 0.9 billion disbursement for Romania

Newsroom 09/01/2011 | 19:50

After completing the sixth review of Romania’s economic performance under a 24-month Stand-By Arrangement, the executive board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced on Friday that that it has approved the disbursement of the seventh loan tranche worth approximately EUR 0.9 billion.

Romania should have received the funds approximately a month earlier but the IMF postponed the disbursement in November as local authorities faileded to adopt the state budget, public sector wage laws and the pension reform in due time.

“The completion of the review enables the immediate disbursement of about EUR 904.8 million (USD 1.17 billion), bringing total disbursements under the program to about EUR 12.44 billion (USD 6.12 billion),” reads the institution’s report.

IMF has also announced that it has approved Romania’s request for a waiver of nonobservance of the end-December 2010 performance criterion on general government domestic arrears. A second waiver of applicability of the end-December 2010 performance criteria on the general government overall balance, the general government guarantees and for the target on inflation at end-December 2010, was also approved.

An IMF delegation is expected in Bucharest on January 25 to review the current arrangement and to negotiate with local authorities a new agreement which will most likely be a one-year precautionary deal worth EUR3.6 billion.