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IMF Cuts Romania’s 2010 Growth Forecast To 0.8%

The International Monetary Fund on Thursday cut its growth forecast for Romania this year to 0.8% from 1.3% previously, due to weaker-than-expected economic results in the last quarter of 2009 and feeble consumption.
IMF Cuts Romania’s 2010 Growth Forecast To 0.8%
15 apr. 2010, 20:11, English

The services sector underperformed as well, said Mihai Tanasescu, Romania’s representative to the IMF.

„In these conditions, the VAT will not evolve well either,” Tanasescu told MEDIAFAX.

The IMF and Romanian authorities will discuss the new figures at the fund’s new review mission scheduled for end April.

Romania and the IMF signed last spring a EUR13 billion standby loan, as part of a EUR20 billion package that also includes funds from the European Commission, the World Bank and other international lenders.

Under the standby arrangement, Romania pledged to bring its budget deficit down to 5.9% of the gross domestic product in 2010, from a gap of 7.2% of GDP a year earlier.

Early April, Finance Minister Sebastian Vladescu said Romania met its 8.25 billion lei (EUR1=RON4.1397) budget deficit target for the first quarter set with the IMF, despite lower-than-expected revenue.