The president of Romania, Klaus Iohannis, received Tuesday the visit of the IMF delegation led by Andrea Schaechter.
During the meeting, the representatives of the International Monetary Fund presented before the President of Romania the most significant developments of the preventive assistance program. The program expired in September 2015, without a favorable final evaluation, which raised questions about the government's willingness to implement structural reforms undertaken.
According to a Presidential Administration release, given that there are serious reservations that Romania meets the conditions required to obtain the agreement of the type Flexible Credit Line, the Romanian President expressed concern about the vulnerabilities which may affects the future fiscal- budgetary framework.
In addition, discussions have also reiterated the special importance to overcome delays in structural reforms, especially in the efficiency of state enterprises, with special attention being paid to energy and transport sectors. According to current assessments, the absence of structural reforms would become, in the medium and long term, a major obstacle to economic performance.
On the other hand, regarding the budget for 2016, the need for Romania not to depart significantly from a prudent fiscal approach was stressed in order to prevent a number of macroeconomic risks. In this respect, on the short-term, it requires keeping the budget deficit under control, as element of responsibility and caution so that the economic policy decisions should reflected favorable economic forecasts of sustainable economic growth.