Romania’s medium- and long-term ceiling for loans and credit guarantee will amount to 3.4 billion dollars next year, as compared to the 2.8 billion dollars allowed for this year, according to the stand-by agreement concluded with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and approved by the Government through a Government Ordinance.
The maximal indebtedness level for 2002 includes guarantees of 100 million dollars for those units that are not state-owned.
Moreover, loans maturing between one and three years will be confined to 600 million dollars, of which a maximum of 20 million dollars for non-budget entities, except for Termoelectrica, Distrigaz Sud and Distrigaz Nord.
Credits maturing between one and three years were confined to 300 million dollars this year, excepting loans contracted by Termoelectrica. The credit ceiling for the largest power producer in Romania was limited to 400 million dollars, excepting the amounts that had already been contracted by the end of May 2001.
Aiming to meet these conditions, the Government pledged to consolidate the control mechanism of the Finance Ministry and improve the system reporting foreign credit distribution, based on reports received from creditors.
Following the bond issue launched by Petrom, Romania also pledged that no other state-owned enterprise would directly contract foreign credits by the end of 2001.
In order to improve the management of foreign debt, the Romanian state will no longer contract/guarantee new debt instruments including “put/option” clauses, also securing a relatively consistent chart for the public debt service.
Romania also pledges to introduce no exchange rate restrictions or multiple exchange rates for that matter. Moreover, Romanian authorities will impose no import restrictions for fiscal purposes or in order to sustain the payment balance.