IMF delegation comes to Bucharest this week

A delegation of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will carry out a visit to Bucharest this week to meet the new Government, according to finance minister Viorel Stefan. He explained that this would be a “courtesy meeting," reports local Agerpres. The delegation, made up of a small team, will be led by the head of the IMF mission in Romania, Reza Baqir. The visit will last one week. Romania doesn’t currently have any financing agreement with the IMF, but the international institution analyses the evolution of Romania’s economy every year. The most recent agreement, which expired without a clear conclusion in September 2015, amounted to EUR 3 billion, but the Romanian authorities hadn’t accessed the funds. The agreement was a preventive one, and had the aim to protect the Romanian economy from eventual market shocks. It was the 10th economic agreement concluded by Romania with IMF in the last 23 years. The agreement went off track after the IMF representatives didn’t reach an agreement with the former PSD Government led by Victor Ponta on an ambitious fiscal relaxation program. The tax cuts that have been implemented in the past two years led to a 4.8% economic growth in the first nine months of 2016. editor@romania-insider.com