Premium
Romania will not access any loans from international lenders if they come with conditionalities, Finance Minister Florin Citu said on Tuesday, adding that currently Romania gets financing from local and international markets.
"We mainly resort to the local markets to finance ourselves. We haven't been penalized so far. Up until now we have managed to finance ourselves despite increasing the budget deficit, despite rating agencies not assigning us the best outlooks, but I state this again: our prudent and transparent public finance management so far has allowed us to finance ourselves at better rates. Of course, international markets are the second source of financing. We did it in March at record low costs for Romania. We are still looking for financing from the international markets and you'll see that we will announce it when we do it. The third source of financing are international financial institutions, the IMF included. As far as this is concerned, I've said it right from the start: we will seek no loan from any international lender, whichever this might be, if this comes with conditionalities," Florin Citu told a press conference.
The Finance Minister emphasized that funding sources from institutions such as the World Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the European Investment Bank (EIB), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) or the European Commission will be accessed "only provided that they don't come with conditions."
"At this moment, we will not access loans that have conditionalities attached. As long as we can borrow from local markets, from international financial markets, we will seek financing from other institutions: the WB, EBRD, EIB, IMF, the European Commission only provided that they don't come with conditions. It is my understanding that there is also a specific IMF instrument available, if need be we will look at it, but let this be very clear, this is not about an agreement. Romania will not sign an agreement, we don't need it. We finance ourselves very well, but if we find unconditional loan sources, we will use them," Citu said.
