IMF to allocate $150 million to Moldova in 2010
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) will allocate $150 million to Moldova in 2010 in the frame of the Memorandum, designed for 2010-2012.
On Tuesday at a news conference IMF Mission Head for Moldova Nikolay Gheorghiev, who is currently paying a working visit to Chisinau, said that the Moldovan Government can use these financial resources for covering the budget deficit and for replenishing the foreign currency reserves of the National Bank of Moldova (NBM), which must keep the inflation in 2010 within the limits of 4.5-5%.
In his words, the replenishment of the NBM foreign currency reserves is important for diminishing external risks, which Moldova faces. Gheorghiev considers that in the first half-year of 2009 the NBM opposed the devaluation process and lost one third of its foreign currency reserve of $1.67 billion.
Speaking about the competitiveness of Moldovan goods abroad, the Mission head stressed that the devaluation of the Moldovan Leu at the end of 2009 created its parity with the currencies of the countries, with which Moldova maintains economic relations.
Nikolay Gheorghiev supposes that the inflation trend may be strengthened in Moldova in the connection with the increase of tariffs on gas, heating and electric power.
In his opinion, in the first quarter of 2010 the inflation will be higher than the targeted indicator that is caused by import prices, but the demand is currently very low, that is why, there is no grounds to suggest that the price index will exceed 10%", he said.
The IMF forecasts a 1.5% economic growth for Moldova in 2010, whereas Prime Minister Vlad hopes that the GDP growth will exceed 4%.
According to Gheorghiev, everything will depend on the recovery of the national economies of Russia and other country of the region. The growth of the Moldovan economy will depend on the external demand, as Moldova with its 3.5 million people is not able to abruptly augment its internal demand.
The fund underscored the improvement of the Government's monetary and budget ppolicy from October 2009, when the mission discussed the economic policy with the Government for 2010-2012 and the Memorandum. In November and December the imports and exports grew, at the same time the GDP fall became slower, compared with the second and the third quarters.
According to him, the IMF underscores a considerable improvement in the Moldovan economy and hopes that its growth will accelerate.
From 1993 the IMF allocated to Moldova over $500 million for supporting the country's foreign currency reserves. In October 2009 for the first time the fund granted $156 million to the Moldovan Government for covering the budget deficit, which constituted 9% of the GDP.
According to the Memorandum, the Moldovan Government pledged to pursue a tough monetary, budget and fiscal policy and to implement structural reforms, so that with their help the budget deficit in 2010 would not exceed 7% of the GDP, in 2011- 5%, in 2012 - 3%. The inflation in this period must constitute 4-5% plus/minus 1%.
Infotag, Moldovan news agency
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