Moldova, International Monetary Fund reach agreement on new loan installment worth 22 million dollars

Chisinau, 7 November /MOLDPRES/ - Moldova’s authorities and experts of the International Monetary Fund have reached a staff-level agreement on the second evaluation of the programme and the second installment worth 22 million dollars, Prime Minister Pavel Filip and the head of the IMF mission, Ben Kelmanson, said at a joint news briefing today.   

“The IMF’s reputation made this programme of Moldova with the Fund represent more than a financial loan, it made be a certificate of trust for Moldova,” Prime Minister Pavel Filip said. The PM noted that all the performance criteria for the period assessed had been fulfilled. Filip also said that, for the cabinet, it was important to have an independent and competent opinion on efforts made in the reform process.   

“We are encouraged to maintain the dynamic of the reforms, in order to stimulate the economic growth and reduce poverty. There are also problems on the settlement of which we will focus our effort on the next period; it is about the governance of banks, assets’ recovery, non-banking financial organizations, creation of the single securities depository,” the prime minister said.     

Pavel Filip also said that, on 7 November, “exactly one year has passed” since the signing of the programme backed by IMF through the extended Fund Facility (EFF) and Extended Credit Facility (ECF), amounting to about 180 million dollars, for a three-year period.   

The head of the IMF mission, Ben Kelmanson, said that the Fund had reached a staff-level agreement with the Moldovan authorities, which is to be approved by the IMF management and Board of Directors. As a result, Moldova might access a new installment on behalf of IMF worth 22 million dollars. Till then, the authorities of Moldova have to fulfill a string of preliminary actions.   

The IMF mission was on a visit to Moldova on 25 October - 7 November, to carry out the second evaluation of the programme with Moldova. During two weeks,  Fund’s experts analyzed the recent developments in the economy and the progress made by the authorities in implementing the programme, in the context’s of the latter’s second assessment.   

Moldova has access to an overall sum of 129.4 special drawing rights (about 178.7 million dollars). The first installment, worth 35.9 million dollars, was provided immediately after the agreement’s approval and the second one, amounting to 21.2 million dollars, - following the first evaluation of the economic programme on the period 14-28 February 2017.  

(Reporter V. Bercu, editor M. Jantovan)