The mission will end on August 10, at which time the conclusions will be announced. The IMF officials will also draw up a report, which the IMF board will discuss at the end of September.
The institution will then decide whether the Romanian authorities carried out the specific tasks and whether the second installment of the loan, worth 1.9 billion euros, will be delivered.
The IMF officials will meet Romanian authorities, employers' and employees' trade unions representatives and bank officials. European Commission and World Bank delegates will also take part to some of the discussions.
Romania sealed a 19.95 billion euros financing agreement with the IMF, the EC, the World Bank, the European Bank for Development and Reconstruction and the International Finance Corporation.
The money from IMF will support the national foreign currency reserve, those from the EC and the WB will be used to cover the budget gap and the remaining money will be reserved to support the crediting.
The first 5 billion euros from the IMF were received at the beginning of May and the WB approved last week the first 300 million installment.
The contract stipulates that the budget gap must not be higher than 8.3 billion lei after the first quarter, 14.5 billion lei after the second and 18.6 billion lei after the third. At the end of the year, the deficit should stand below 24.3 billion lei.
The IMF official for Romania and Bulgaria, Tonny Lybek, declared on July 17 for The Money Channel, that if the government does not meet the deficit target due to internal decisions, the fund will not deliver the second installment.
