BUCHAREST (Romania), November 2 (SeeNews) – The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has asked Romania to cut off subsidy payments to state-owned companies heavily indebted to the country’s budget, Bucharest-based news agency Mediafax reported on Monday.
“There will be only two or three [such] companies that will get state aid,” Mediafax (www.mediafax.ro) quoted State Secretary at the Economy Ministry Tudor Serban as saying.
These companies are railway infrastructure operator CFR Infrastructure, CFR Calatori, a provider of railway passenger transport services, and the National Black Coal Company, Serban said.
No further details were immediately available.
Romania’s government and the IMF have been monitoring the financial performance of 10 state-owned companies in a bid to cut central budget lifelines, Medifax reported.
Serban added that axing some 1,600 jobs in the mining sector was one of the measures discussed with the visiting IMF mission on Monday.
A mission from the IMF, the European Union and the World bank is in Bucharest through November 9 for the second review of Romania's economic performance under the country's 20 billion euro ($29.6 billion) stand-by arrangement with the three international organisations signed in March.
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