IMF Board discusses Romania

The International Monetary Fund’s Executive Board will review the stand-by agreement with Romania on October 15, one week later than previously announced. The delay was caused by the recent annual meeting of the institution, held in Dubai. “We need one week to have the documents circulated among directors and we will also discuss with Fund representatives over the next few days,” Public Finance minister Mihai Tanasescu said. He specified he was confident this would be the first successful completion of an agreement signed with the IMF, which would make the international financial institution disburse the last tranche of the loan, $153 million, to Romania. The annual meeting of the IMF and World Bank was held in Dubai throughout September 23-24. The Romanian authorities and the IMF representatives signed a supplementary economic policy memorandum in late July. The stand-by agreement was concluded in October 2001 and is worth 300 million SDRs, i.e. about $418 million. The Romanian authorities will soon begin talks with the IMF representatives on the next form of co-operation with the institution, which may turn out as a “precautionary arrangement.” ZF