The International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission will visit Bucharest over Jan. 25 - Feb. 6, 2012 for a fourth assessment of the accord with Romania, IMF representative in Romania and Bulgaria, Tonny Lybek announced at a news conference.

An International Monetary Fund mission headed by Jeffrey Franks will visit Romania over Jan. 25 - Feb. 6, 2012 to conduct the fourth evaluation of the Stand-by Accord with Romania. A range of technical meetings will begin on January 24 and Jeffrey Franks will stay one more day after the mission completion and will leave on February 8. The IMF visit will take place together with the European Commission and World Bank teams, Lybek said.

The IMF official stressed the agreement with Romania is a precautionary one, which means the authorities do not plan to draw the available amounts. The IMF, the European Commission and the World Bank delegation will meet Romanian authorities as well as the representatives for the political parties, trade unions, businesses, banks and civil society.

The mission conclusions will be communicated after the end of the visit, Lybek added.

The previous mission of the joint IMF, European Commission and World Bank delegation took place over Oct. 25 - Nov. 7, 2011 for the third assessment of the budget policies as part of the precautionary stand-by agreement with Romania. When the visit ended, Franks said the Romanian authorities had managed to meet all the requirements set by the IMF and are within the parameters set by it.

The Romanian Government, at the end of last year, approved a contribution amounting to 781.2 million SDR (Special Drawing Rights) by Romania to increasing the IMF share capital. Public Finance Minister Gheorghe Ialomitianu explained the increase in Romania's contribution has nothing to do with the recent European Council decision by which the European Union states are invited to contribute 200 billion euros to the IMF re-capitalisation as part of measures aimed to rescue the Euro zone.

The Stand-By Accord between Romania and the IMF began on March 31, 2011 and it is a precautionary one amounting to 3.1 billion SDR or 3.6 billion euros, accounting for roughly 300 percent of Romania's share at the IMF.

The new agreement is 24-month long and it is to be conducted at the same time with a new precautionary agreement with the European Union for 1.4 billion euros as well as with a 0.4 billion euros loan from the World Bank.

The entire 3.6 billion euro amount the IMF will make Romania available under the new precautionary agreement will go to the National Bank.