PREMIER FILIP SAYS IMF MISSION WILL COME TO CHISINAU IN JUNE

The long-awaited mission of the International Monetary Fund will come to Chisinau in June, Moldovan Prime Minister Pavel Filip announced on the Moldova-1 public television on Thursday night.

“Our dialog with the IMF is moving forward. Don't think that the negotiations with the IMF boil down merely to an exchange of letters. We have been in a constructive dialog, and we are aware of all of the Fund’s demands. Generally speaking, these conditions are not unrealizable. They include those very reforms which we want to implement because they will serve the modernization of our country”, said the Moldovan Prime Minister.

Pavel Filip underlined that a part of the IMF demands have already been met, for instance the liquidation of the three Moldovan banks, from which a billion euros was siphoned off; a number of laws have been adopted, aimed at consolidation of the Moldovan banking and finance system; and a new National Bank president has been appointed.

“The Government shall resolve the question of stability of the Moldovan banking sector once and forever. There is a ready strategy of putting an end to the vulnerability of our banking system, and it will be discussed with the IMF mission. I do hope very much this will happen at the end of May or in early June. Moldova must develop economically. This means we must de-block external financing, too. But the IMF mission will not come until we have restored the development partners’ trust lost by previous governments”, said Pavel Filip.

He reminded that resumption of relations with the International Monetary Fund was one of the conditions for Romania’s furnishing a 150-million-euro credit for Moldova.

“I am sure we will necessarily receive the Romanian credit. I have just talked with Prime Minister of Romania Dacian Ciolos, and he said that immediately after we receive first signal that the IMF mission is coming, Bucharest will launch the procedure of transferring the first 60-million-euro tranche from that credit. All the conditions, put forward by the Romanian Government for furnishing the credit, have been met. Now we are already at the technical stage of the procedure”, said the Moldovan Prime Minister.

Infotag’s dossier: The Senate of Romania has already ratified the Agreement on granting the 150-million-euro credit payable in 5 years against the interest rate of 1.5% p.a. However, President of Romania Klaus Iohannis refused to promulgate it, and sent it back to parliament in November 2015. He voiced apprehension that in the conditions of political instability (after a government resignation on October 29, 2015) Moldova might suspend its started reforms.

To avoid that, in January 2016 the Government of Romania put forth a number of conditions to Moldova, such as e.g. resumption of negotiations with the International Monetary Fund, the appointment of a new National Bank President, the passing of laws aimed at improving the current banking legislation.