IMF is prepared to ease Romania’s loan fiscal terms. Romanian Finance Minister says it is not necessary 

IMF is ready to ease the fiscal terms for the loans granted to Romania, Latvia and Hungary, an IMF councillor declared for Reuters. The IMF initiative is based on the fact that the economic situation from the region has worsened.

Romanian Finance Minister Gheorghe Pogea states Romania has no reason to ask for such a concession. The economy’s tendency to contract will moderate by the end of the second 2009 trimester and by the beginning of the third, when the economic growth will restart, Pogea declared for news agency NewsIn.

Romanian Finance Minister supported his statement by pointing out to the foreign investment sector – which has dropped less than expected, to a stabilised exchange rate and to a 60% increase recorded in April in the construction industry. The statements have been made after the National Prognosis Institute announced the most abrupt Romanian GDP drop in the last 11 years: 6.4%.

Latvia and Hungary resorted to an IMF bailout after recording a budget deficit of 7% and 3.9%, respectively. Ukraine could benefit from another 16.5 billion dollars bailout package, the IMF official added.