EXCLUSIVE: Will IMF renegotiate with Republic of Moldova?
foto: Publika.md
Publika TV has sent a request to the IMF to find out if the International Monetary Fund is ready to renegotiate the Financing Memorandum with the Republic of Moldova, in the context in which the country's leadership wants to discuss some points in the document. We publish the full IMF response:
"As you know, the last mission of the IMF visited Chisinau between June 6 - July 10, 2019. Then, an expert agreement was reached on the outcome of the negotiations that took place:
This is a standard procedure - an agreement is reached after negotiations, then the documents are presented internally to the responsible departments of the IMF and then presented to the IMF management.
At the moment, we are waiting for the Board meeting - the IMF Board of Directors - to which the report concerning the Republic of Moldova will be examined. This meeting is scheduled for September 20, 2019. So the process has started and is underway.
If the Board approves the document, the money (the tranches of the planned financial assistance) will be transferred over a few days and at the same time the entire package of documents will be made public on the IMF website.
In order to renegotiate something, the entire process from the beginning- the mission to Chisinau, the negotiations, etc. - is needed.
The problem, however, is that the current 3-year IMF agreement with the Moldovan authorities expires at the beginning of November 2019 and there is no practical way to carry out new negotiations (with a new mission coming to Chisinau) within this time schedule.
After the agreement expires, the remaining financial assistance installments will also expire, so they will no longer be allocated. It will have to proceed with the negotiation of a new agreement (a new program) already in 2020, which is a long-term process, " quoted the IMF message.
Publika.md recalls that after the Government announced fiscal reforms, which were discussed and imposed by the IMF, several politicians, but also the business people, demanded that the Chisinau authorities renegotiate the agreement.