A new mission of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is coming on Wednesday to Romania for the second review of the Stand-by precautionary agreement and for assessing the progress made as regards the commitments made by the Romanian authorities.

The mission will end on 1 August and the IMF experts, together with their European Commission (EC) and World Bank (WB) peers, will discuss the targets set for the first half of the year with representatives of the National Bank of Romania (BNR), the government, the business and political milieu, as well as with the social partners.

IMF experts first visited Romania in relation with the new precautionary agreement between April 27 and May 9, during a joint mission of the IMF, EC and WB.

According to the Technical Memorandum of Understanding between the two parties, the state-owned companies monitored under the Agreement with the IMF will lay off about 7,000 employees until end-September at the latest, so as to improve performance.

Romania's precautionary Stand-By arrangement with the IMF began on March 31, 2011 and amounts to SDR 3.1 billion, or 3.6 billion euros respectively, representing approximately 300 pct of Romania's share with the IMF.

The new arrangement with the IMF spans 24 months and will run concomitantly with a new EUR 1.4 bln precautionary agreement with the EU, as well as with a EUR 0.4 bln loan agreement with the World Bank.The Stand-By Agreement between Romania and the IMF began on March 31, 2011 and is a preventive type, amounting to SDR 3.1 billion, EUR 3.6 billion respectively, representing approximately 300% of the share of Romania has IMF.

The IMF made available to Romania's two tranches under the new agreement, worth 67 million euros and 480 million of euros, respectively.