IMF's Deppler will not have a relaxed Government

Michael Deppler, one of the most influential International Monetary Fund (IMF) directors, has warned the Romanian authorities they have to go on with reform and maintain the fiscal discipline, or else recent progress will be in vain.
“I came here to see if the Government is determined to maintain the macroeconomic stability and the reform pace. My experience shows that, when things are starting to get better, people tend to relax. The efforts must continue in Romania and discipline is the key to maintaining growth,” Michael Deppler, IMF’s European I Department Director told Ziarul Financiar.
The IMF official, who was in Bucharest for two days, says Romania would shoot itself in the foot if it no longer cared about the discipline of the public finances and of the state-run companies.
“Romania is lagging behind the other EU applicant states and needs a strategy to catch up,” Deppler says.
In his opinion, Bulgaria outran Romania because it “woke up faster, when the 1997 crisis occurred.” Romania’s wakeup call to proceed to real reform was the 1998-1999 period, the pressures from the Russian crisis included.
Deppler says Romania has moved on from the “country in big trouble” status to a situation where it is no longer threatened by immediate risks.
According to the International Monetary Fund official, the current positive economic results are due to the change in economic strategy four or five years ago.
Deppler added this strategy had to be supported by disciplinary measures for the budgetary sector, though, as well as for speeding up the restructuring in the energy sector, “a real ‘Achilles’ heel” of the Romanian economy.”
“We are also talking about an economy where poverty is a genuine problem and steps need to be taken in this regard, too. Still, unless the fiscal-financial discipline is observed, then one eventually ends up putting a spoke in one’s own wheel, because if there’s no discipline, the economic growth slows down,” Michael Deppler specified.