July 18 (SeeNews) - Moldova will receive a $25 million (22.4 million euro) loan from the IMF and in August will get the first tranche of a 150 million euro loan from Romania for salaries and pensions, prime minister Pavel Filip told local media on Sunday.
"We were not expecting huge amounts of money from the IMF. For us it their expertise and recommendations for an efficient government matter more," the prime minister said during a talkshow on Prime TV.
According to Filip, Moldova will certainly sign a new agreement with the IMF, as only some technical details remain to be settled.
Also, Moldova will receive the first tranche of a promised 150 million euro from Romania in August, Filip added.
In May, Romanian president Klaus Iohannis approved the disbursement of a 150 million euro ($167 million) loan to Moldova for salaries and pensions, but the transfer of the loan's first tranche is conditional on a deal with the IMF.
Besides these two loans, Moldova will receive another two loans of 45 million euro each from the World Bank and the European Union, the prime minister also said.
The IMF said on Friday it has made significant progress in discussions on a financial assistance programme for Moldova.
"There are only a few issues that remain to be closed and our discussions will continue from Washington in the coming days," mission leader Ivanna Vladkova-Hollar said in a joint statement with Filip.
The IMF and Moldova reached an agreement on a number of critical areas including on reforms to enhance the governance and transparency of the banking sector, to ensure the sustainability of the energy sector and to achieve medium term fiscal policy objectives, Hollar then added.
A working mission of the IMF visited Moldova between May 23 and 27, without a mandate to negotiate a financial assistance programme. Discussions focused on the authorities’ strategy for financial sector reforms and ensuring the long-term safety and soundness of Moldova’s banks, the fund said at the time.
In April, the IMF said it expects Moldova's economy to expand by 0.5% in 2016, revising down an earlier projection for 1.5% growth this year.
For 2017, the fund sees the country's GDP growth at 2.5%, it said in its latest World Economic Outlook report.
Moldova has been trying to cope with a major banking crisis since about $1 billion (862 million euro) went missing from three local banks in November 2014. The banks - Banca de Economii, Banca Sociala and Unibank were liquidated.
($= 0.8977 euro)