October 24 (SeeNews) - Moldova's central bank said on Monday that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) board will meet on November 7 to discuss a $182.7 million (167.8 million euro) three-year funding arrangement with Moldova.
The funding arrangement provides access to financing at a level of 75% of Moldova's IMF quota, which is some $182.7 million, the central bank, BNM, said in a press release.
The BNM and Moldova's government have fulfilled the prior actions of the Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies ( MEFP) under the staff level agreement concluded on July 26, it added.
"This new program with the IMF aims, among other things, to rapidly improve the governance and supervision of the banking sector. In particular, the program seeks the assessment and transparency of the shareholding of commercial banks in Moldova. Monetary policy will continue to be focused on maintaining price stability in the context of a flexible exchange rate regime," BNM added.
Moldova has been trying to cope with a major banking crisis since about $1 billion went missing from three local banks in November 2014. The banks - Banca de Economii, Banca Sociala and Unibank were liquidated.
The IMF said in July it would lend Moldova $179 million under a crucial three-year economic reform programme, for which a staff level agreement was reached. The staff level agreement is subject to approval by IMF executive board, which was expected to meet in October.
On Friday, Moldovan finance ministry dismissed media reports of an alleged link between the timing of the expected approval the loan deal with the IMF by the Fund's board and the upcoming presidential elections in the country.
"Following information published in media, the finance ministry states that the preparations for approval of Moldova's programme by the IMF board are in the final stage. The calendar remains the same, as technical discussions are ongoing. We expect the date of the IMF board meeting to be announced soon," the finance ministry said in a statement. "We state that there is no connection between the presidential elections in Moldova and the agreement with the IMF. These are two completely independent processes which happened to overlap in time."
The statement followed articles in the local media which quoted an unnamed government source as saying that the IMF had decided to postpone its board meeting, at which it will consider the funding agreement with Moldova, at least until after the first round of the presidential elections which will take place on October 30.
Moldova will hold at the end of October its first direct presidential elections in 16 years. The new president will be elected through a universal, direct and secret vote following recent amendments to the constitution that closed the way for indirect election of the head of state by parliament.
The front runners in the presidential race are, according to a recent poll conducted by the Moldova's Public Politics Institute, are Socialist party leader Igor Dodon and Maia Sandu, the recently designated candidate of a coalition comprising extra-parliamentary Action and Security party, PAS, and the extra-parliamentary Dignity and Truth party, DA.
($= 0.9187 euro)