Romania might pay pensions and salaries delayed or rationalized, one newspaper reads on Tuesday. Also in business, PM Boc announces an over-taxation of the rich. Last but not least, Romanians hid 200 tons of gold, the treasure of the Central Bank between 1944 to 1947 in a cave in the Valcan mountains. The operation was meant to protect the national wealth from Russian troops ready to invade the country.
Gandul reads that the IMF found the Romanian government facing a serious problem: the government's high debts to the private environment which the government needs to reduce to get the sixth instalment worth 900 million euro.
IMF chief of mission in Romania, Jeffrey Franks announced that the IMF will consider for 2010 a deeper recession of 0.5% of GDP but up to 3%. Official sources declared that because the state has problems getting loans from abroad, and internally the relation with banks is not very good, the state might not have money to pay pensions and salaries in time.
If the state remains without money, the state will have to rationalize spending and this could mean cancelling investments and delayed payments of salaries and pensions. The IMF mission started off on a pessimistic tone.
The main challenge for the IMF is to support Romania to exit the recession. Franks declared that despite the obvious deficiencies, there was considerable progress. Experts declare that Romania sent mixed signals to the IMF: the VAT increase even though an unfortunate policy for Romania revealed a determination to maintain the deficit under control.
However, it is the problem is that the government thinks will push the deficit related problems to the end of the year. One of the biggest problems the government faces right now is the high debts it has to the private environment.
