IMF mission back to Bucharest on Monday for fifth review of stand-by agreement

An International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission, headed by Jeffrey Franks, will be in Bucharest between July 26 and August 4 for the fifth review of the stand-by agreement Romania has signed with the fund. An European Commission review mission will also be visiting Romania during this period. Pending on the result of this review, Romania could receive the sixth loan tranche, some EUR 900 million. The joint IMF and EC mission will analyses the budget review for 2010, discuss about the 2011 budget and overview the fiscal and monetary policies in place, according to Mihai Tanasescu, Romania's representative with the IMF. This review mission was preceded by a technical assistance mission, which came to Bucharest on July 14 and which is due to leave on July 28. The team came from IMF's fiscal department to support the Romanian Fiscal Authorities (ANAF) in improving tax collection. The IMF team was headed by Thomas Martin Story. A similar team came to Bucharest last year. The financial aid package for Romania was of EUR 20 billion, which came from the IMF, the EC, the World Bank and other international financial groups. So far, Romania got EUR 10.7 billion from the IMF, EUR 2.5 bilion from the EC and EUR 300 million from the World Bank.