The joint evaluation mission of the IMF, the EC and the World Bank yesterday concluded its seventh evaluation for the stand-by agreement, in which it reviewed the meeting of the objectives set for Q4 2010 and were negotiated the conditions on a new precautionary agreement.
At the end of March, the board of the IMF will be discussing the seventh evaluation of the stand-by agreement and the terms of the future precautionary agreement with Romania, according to the head of the evaluation mission, Jeffrey Franks.
He reiterated his statement that the Romanian authorities have met all the conditions set for 2010, mentioning that the deficit target has been met with "a substantial margin".
Franks also showed that the inflation rate has been in line with the expectations of the international experts and of the NBR, even though the price hikes for food and fuel have caused the consumer price index to rise slightly above the anticipated value.
The IMF official believes that inflation will decrease over the coming period and has confidence in the forecast of the NBR concerning the evolution of prices in 2011.
Franks reminded the fact that amount of the future agreement with the IMF will be of approximately 3.6 billion Euros.
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The agreement with the IMF has harmed the business sector in Romania, since it destroyed SMEs, led to the hike of the VAT and created a major imbalance in the public sector, Florin Pogonaru, the chairman of the "Association of Romanian Business People" (AOAR).
"On a psychological level, the agreement damaged the credibility of the country and of the NBR, as it was said that the latter would use the loan to keep the exchange rate st