November 23 (SeeNews) - Moldova needs to meet key commitments under the reform programme advised by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and to reform its banking sector in 2018, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) said.
"The IMF programme is a crucial anchor for reforms and is essential to catalysing further international support and implementation of structural reforms," the EBRD said in its Transition Report 2017-2018 presented in London on Wednesday.
At the beginning of November, the IMF said it will consider making available to Moldova $22 million (19 million euro) under the country's current three-year $178 million credit facility extended in November 2016. In May, the IMF lent Moldova $21.5 million under the same credit facility.
Moldova's banking sector cleansing should be completed, the bank added. The new regulatory and supervision framework needs to be thoroughly implemented, and non-transparent shareholders still present in the ownership structure of some of the largest banks should be replaced with fit and proper investors.
Moldova has been trying to cope with a major banking crisis since about $1 billion went missing from three local banks in November 2014. The banks - Banca de Economii, Banca Sociala and Unibank were liquidated.
In 2018, Moldova should continue reforms in regulating and improving the business environment and governance, the EBRD said.
Other key priorities should include judiciary reform, simplification of the regulatory framework, an overhaul of the tax and customs administration, and improvement of governance in public institutions.
In November, the EBRD maintained its May projection for Moldova's economic growth in 2017 at 3.0%. For 2018, the bank forecasts economic growth of 3.5% in Moldova, the same rate of increase as in its previous forecast made in May.
($=0.8509 euro)