19 billion euros for credibility

Radu Berceanu ready to swear that the IMF will be indulgent with Romania

The loan package that Romania wants to take from the global financial institutions reaches 19 billion euros, only 4 of which will be used. The rest - 15 billion euros - will be a backup.

The Romanian Government members finished the calculations regarding the financing package that Romania should borrow from the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank (WB) and other funding institutions.

"The sum brought into discussion is about 19 billion euros, only four of which will support Government activities, the rest having a backup role", said the Transport Minister Radu Berceanu. He also stated that the sum from the IMF, that reaches 13 billion euros, will be available for the NBR and will be spent only to support the national currency or "for any other unexpected issues".

PM Emil Boc also wanted to clarify that "the Government talks with the IMF and the European Commission about the loan take place due to prevention reasons in order to limit the negative effects of the economic crisis, not because Romania would be in desperate need of money". In addition to the 13 billions from the IMF, the European Commission would grant Romania 4 billion, the European Investment Bank would grant another billion euros and the World Bank another billion. The money from the European Commission and the ones from the World Bank would go to the Finance Ministry, while the money from the EIB to the banks for private funding, the government sources say.

The conditions imposed by the IMF are "indulgent" as compared to the previous agreement, when "a lot tougher" directions were to be followed, Berceanu said.

"We are not so happy to have the agreement or the assistance from the IMF, but there is no tragedy about it. I have previous experience with the IMF, I know what it means. I can say that they were very indulgent this time. Usually, the terms were much tougher and direct. This time, things are easier to put into practice and I think there are things that we would have or should have done without the indications from the IMF", Berceanu said.

PROTEST RISC
While our government members tell us that everything is ok, that we are not in desperate need of money and that the situation is under control, worrying signals from outside the country appear more and more often. "Romania's political stability may be in danger, there is a high risk of social protests due to international financial crisis", says a report of the Economist Intelligence Unit.

According to the institution's evaluation, Romania is ranked 66th in a classification of the 165 most socially unstable states. Romania obtained 6.4 points, while the best-ranked country (165th place) was Norway with 1.2 points and the most unstable state was Zimbabwe (ranked 1st). We are seen as the most unstable state (after Estonia and Latvia) in the EU. Our neighbors, Bulgaria (ranked 86th) and Hungary (ranked 82nd) have a better image. Slovakia was ranked 98th, Poland was the 136th, Cyprus was the 142nd, Slovenia was the 153rd, and the Czech Republic was the 150th.