International Monetary Fund might review agreement with Moldova

Chisinau, 31 December /MOLDPRES/ – The International Monetary Fund (IMF) could reassess agreement with Moldova which provides funding of $178 million, if canceled decision on converting emergency loans offered by the National Bank of Moldova (BNM) to the three robbed banks in public debt, said Armine Khachatryan, IMF resident representative.

In such a way commented on Free Europe Radio the recent statements of President Igor Dodon on canceling the decision of conversion the National Bank loan into the public debt:

"Act converting government securities issued by National Bank in 2014 – 2015 in government securities, so the public debt was one of the prior actions under the program with IMF, as it is mentioned in the Letter of Intent signed by the authorities and the Memorandum on economic and financial policies," said the IMF representant. She added that "the law purpose was approved in 2016 to recover BNM’s financial resources of loans that were granted as emergency to three insolvent banks – Banca de Economii a Moldovei (Bank of Savings of Moldova), Banca Sociala (Social Bank) and Unibank. Emergency loans were used for payment of the depositors of the three banks, including individuals and businesses."

"If some commitments that are related to ensuring the objectives of the program are canceled, we will have to reassess if they can be made the major goals of the program" – reads the IMF statement.

On 28 December, Igor Dodon signed the legislative initiative on the cancellation of the law involving a shift on the shoulders of citizens repayment of billions stolen from the banking system. The project will be examined by Parliament and adopted or rejected.

Prime Minister Pavel Filip commented the presidential statement in the cabinet meeting as follows: "I want to bring you just one example, the next year State Budget Law provides 650 million lei for emergency servicing of this loan. If we did not do this, if we did not approve this law, in 2016 we did not achieve €60 million from Bucharest, $35 million from the International Monetary Fund, €45.3 million from the European Union as a grant, which is about one billion lei, and $45 million from the World Bank. This money means, first of all, roads, kindergartens, schools and social projects for Moldovan citizens".

According to the law on conversion into state debt the emergency loans, there were issued bonds amounting to 13 billion 583 million lei for a period of up to 25 years at an effective rate of interest of 5 per cent. The bonds were transmitted to the National Bank.

(Reporter V. Bercu, editor L. Alcaza)