Possible new agreement with the IMF

Romania could resume negotiations with the International Monetary Fund on the stand-by agreement, if the IMF, after considering the results of the macroeconomic consultations, thinks a successful assessment is possible, finance minister Sebastian Vladescu stated at the end of last week. “We have expressed our wish for the IMF to review the agreement with Romania in spring. We could resume negotiations if the Fund believes this possible after macroeconomic consultations”, says Vladescu. IMF experts returned to Bucharest at the end of January for the annual macroeconomic consultations. The stand-by agreement is not among the topics of discussion, since negotiations on the subject failed last autumn, after the Romanian authorities rejected demands by the Fund, with the latter considering the arrangement as having been “derailed”. Claudiu Doltu, secretary of state in the Finance Ministry said that discussions over the pre-cautionary stand-by agreement could be resumed in March. ZF