Romania’s 2010 State Budget To See Parliament Approval Early January – PM-Designate

„We need to have the 2010 state budget adopted early January. The budget needs to be in line with the Romania’s commitments, based on a deficit of 5.9%,” Boc said.

He added 2010 will be a difficult year, but better than 2009, as the country expects economic growth following sharp economic contraction this year.

„We’ll need to take immediate measures to continue supporting businesses, to ready economic recovery and help keep jobs,” Boc said, adding the government will continue to keep its commitments to the IMF, EU and World Bank as it did this year, regardless of election campaigns and elections.

President Traian Basescu said earlier in the day Romania might receive two new tranches of a EUR13 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund on February 17, provided it can adopt the 2010 budget by mid-January.

Basescu said the government and parliament must observe a tight schedule in order to receive the two disbursements, which amount to EUR2.3 billion.

„We must have a functioning government by December 23 so that it can send the budget to parliament by year-end and the parliament may begin debates on January 4 or January 5 and have it approved on January 16,” Basescu said.

Early 2009, the IMF has lent Romania EUR13 billion as part of a larger bailout package which includes funds from the EU, the World Bank and other financial organizations to cushion the effects of a deepening recession.

Romania has received so far around EUR7 billion in two tranches from the IMF, and was scheduled to get another EUR1.5 billion by year-end. Under the loan agreement, a fourth disbursement is due in March 2010.

In November, the IMF decided to delay its third disbursement to Romania due to political turmoil, as the Eastern European country remained without a government after Prime Minister Emil Boc’s Cabinet lost a confidence vote in parliament.

On Thursday, the newly reelected President Basescu said he designated Boc to form a new government.

An IMF mission is currently in Romania to discuss next year’s state budget.