IMF team pays short visit to Romania to finalize 2010 budget talks

A team of experts from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is visiting Romania to talk about the 2010 budget with Romanian government representatives, although the IMF had previously said it would delay its mission visit until the new government would be in place. The Romanian finance minister, Gheorghe Pogea has said the interim government is trying to convince the IMF to grant Romania the third tranche of the loan in January next year. “It will be a very short mission, one to three days to finalize the 2010 budget. There is a small difference between we, the IMG, the Commission and the authorities… We need to establish the T zero moment, so that irrespective of who follows (in governing, e.n), they respect certain public policies. There is a slight difference in understanding the exposure on revenues and we will work together on the last indicators,” said Mihai Tanasescu, Romania’s representatives with the IMF.

The IMF has already granted EUR 6.57 billion to Romania, in two tranches, out of around EUR 13 billion. The third payment, EUR 1.5 billion, was initially scheduled for mid-December, but has been delayed until a new government will be in place. The European Commission too has delayed its second payment, an expected EUR 1 billion, out of the total EUR 5 billion loan, waiting for things to settle locally.