New IMF mission starts three-day visit to Moldova

Chisinau, 30 March /MOLDPRES/ - A mission of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) started its three-day working visit to Moldova today. During the mission, the new chief negotiator for Moldova, Ivanna Vladkova-Hollar, will be introduced. She will replace Max Alier in office starting from next May.

IMF representatives will meet the leadership of the government, Finance Ministry, Economics Ministry, National Bank of Moldova and other institutions.

Moldova has not been having a programme with IMF since the spring of 2013, when after an agreement signed in 2010 was prolonged for another three months, Moldova missed the last instalment, as it had failed to fulfil the assumed commitments. The Moldovan authorities repeatedly declared that Moldova needed a new programme with IMF, which would serve as guarantee for foreign partners.

The last IMF post-programme assessment mission of the past autumn found more deviations from the tax discipline, but welcomed „the authorities’ intention to keep the deficit under 3 per cent of GDP in 2015”. The experts stressed that it would be necessary to further consolidate the budget for a medium term. The serious corporative administration problems in the banking system still represent a risk for the financial stability, the IMF representatives stated.

IMF Board of Directors called upon the Moldovan authorities to further promote prudent macroeconomic policies and in the financial sector, as well as to continue implementing structural reforms, in order to reduce present vulnerabilities and encourage potential increase of the quota of production. The Board also recommended improving the quality of the corporative management of the banking sector, including by enhancing transparency of properties of final beneficiaries of banks.

A new IMF experts’ mission, which will make the third post-programme monitoring and possibly will initiate talks on signing a new agreement, is to arrive to Moldova in May.

The old three-year economic programme with Moldova was approved by the Board of Directors on 29 January 2010 and stipulated a financial assistance of about 570 million dollars, of which 490 million dollars has been earmarked. After the Fund’s mission from November 2012, the programme was extended for another three months. Yet, as the obligations were not honoured against the background of a political crisis that started in early 2013 and laws running counter agreements with MF were adopted, Moldova missed the last instalment of 76 million dollars.

(Reporter. V. Bercu, Editor A. Raileanu)