Recently published letter confirms Romania's waiver requests to IMF on missed targets, contradicts PM's statement

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) recently published the letter of intent Romania sent to the fund in the beginning of June, where the country was asking for waivers on some of its missed targets. A few days after the letter had been set to the fund, Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta said Romania did not ask for any waivers. The recently published letter of intent however shows otherwise. "In view of our performance under the program supported by the IMF, the EU, and the World Bank and the corrective actions taken, the Government of Romania and the NBR request waivers on the missed performance criteria and completion of the seventh and eighth reviews,” the Romanian authorities write in the letter of intent. The letter is signed by Finance Minister Daniel Chitoiu and the National bank governor Mugur Isarescu. The entire letter of intent is here. This June, Romania passed the seventh and eighth reviews, successfully completing the Standby Arrangement with the International Monetary Fund. The IMF waived objectives on net foreign assets of Romania’s central bank (BNR), the general government balance and central government arrears to allow Romania to pass the review. The IMF granted the waivers because of “corrective actions taken by the authorities.” The completed Standby Arrangement was approved on March 25, 2011, and became effective on March 31, 2011. The agreement was due to finish at the end of March this year, but the IMF gave Romania an extra three months to meet outstanding objectives. Completion of the reviews made the final chunk of funds available for disbursement, just over EUR 520 million. This takes the total funds made available to Romania under the agreement to just short of EUR 3.6 billion. As throughout the Standby Arrangement, Romania is continuing to use the funds as a precautionary credit line, without drawing on them. editor@romania-insider.com