An IMF mission, which is Bucharest until November 9 for a second review of a EUR20 billion loan package it is overseeing, met Tuesday with representatives of unions and employers.
„We’ve asked the IMF not to disburse the third tranche because we have to teach politicians a lesson because Romania is undergoing a political crisis,” National Union Bloc head Dumitru Costin said after the meeting.
Employers, on the other hand, said Romania risks collapse unless the IMF continues to disburse installments of the bailout loan.
„Romania must get the next tranches because otherwise there will be pressure on the government, which will have to borrow money from commercial banks and banks will no longer give household and corporate loans, which will worsen the crisis,” said Ioan Coraci, head of the UGIR-1903 employers’ association.
Romania and the IMF have signed a EUR12.95 billion loan agreement as part of the package, which also includes money from the European Union, World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
Besides a deepening recession, Romania is also facing political instability ahead of presidential elections due later this month and is currently led by a government that lost a confidence vote in Parliament mid-October. The country’s new proposed government is very likely to be rejected in Parliament which holds the confidence vote Wednesday.