IMF mission starts visit to evaluate programme with Moldova

Chisinau, 14 February /MOLDPRES/ - A mission of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) today started a visit to Chisinau with meetings between experts at the National Bank of Moldova (BNM), due to be followed by meetings at the Finance Ministry and Economics Ministry in the afternoon. This is the first evaluation of the programme for Moldova, approved by the IMF Board of Directors on 7 November 2016.

During two weeks, the IMF mission will analyze the recent developments and the progress made by the authorities in implementing the programme, in the context of the first evaluation of the programme, backed by the IMF Extended Fund Facility (EFF) and Extended Credit Facility (ECF), IMF Resident Representative in Moldova Armine Khachatryan said.    

In the end of the mission, the IMF experts will present a report, in order to earmark the second installment of the financing provided by the Fund. Moldova has access to an overall sum worth 129.4 special drawing rights (about 178.7 million dollars). The first installment worth 35.9 million dollars was provided immediately after the agreement had been approved.  

The main subject on the agenda of discussions will be the situation in the banking system, still suffering in the wake of the “billion theft.” The IMF experts will assess the extent to which the commitments in terms of full control and diagnosing the crediting of the sides affiliated to the three big banks were honoured, as well as the identification of the end beneficiaries of the biggest three banks from Moldova.  

Another topic of discussion with the IMF mission will be the law on legalization of capital and fiscal stimulation. “The draft law, in its present form, would lead to the jeopardizing of the measures to fight corruption and would put obstacles to the fight against the money laundering and frauds,” the IMF resident in Chisinau has earlier said. Khachatryan noted that the dialogue with the authorities would continue, in order to identify possibilities to adjust the legislative initiatives to the goals set within the programme.  

Another commitment, provided for in the Programme, is working out of a transparent mechanism, in order to ensure the adjusting of the tariffs for public utilities based on costs in time, in order to prevent discretionary procrastinations. Thus, the tariffs for the thermal electric power station Nord (CET Nord) have not been adjusted since 2011, and for Termoelectrica, they were adjusted as late as in September 2016, in conditions when both enterprises have debts of hundreds of millions of lei. And this will also be an issue due to be tackled in discussions between IMF experts and authorities.    

(Reporter V. Bercu, editor M. Jantovan)