IMF Says Romanian Lawmakers Must Pass Credible Budget - Bloomberg

“We need to see details of the amendment of the budget before we decide what additional measures to take,” Bloomberg quoted IMF residentr representative in Romania Tonny Lybek as saying while attending a seminar in Bucharest.

“We have to look at the composition of expenditures to make sure the numbers make sense to us.”

The Washington-based lender said last week it will delay the next tranche of a 20 billion euro ($30 billion) bailout package, planned for December, until a new government is formed. Prime Minister Emil Boc’s cabinet collapsed in a no-confidence vote last month.

Romania's parliament plans to pass measures which would allow Boc’s outgoing government to pass the 2010 budget. Under the aid deal, Romania must keep the fiscal deficit at 7.3% of gross domestic product (GDP) this year and at 5.9% of GDP in 2010, Bloomberg said.

Erik Berglof, chief economist for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development that is participating in the loan package, said on the sidelines of the same seminar that a delay of a few weeks in the next tranche “is not significant. I don’t see a few weeks as being absolutely critical,” Bloomberg reported.