Officials:EU-IMF mission to audit Romanian finances

Auditors from the European Union and International Monetary Fund were expected to arrive on Tuesday to inspect public finances after a new loan agreement, officials said. They are due to publish their findings and recommendations on August 1. After a previous audit in April, the IMF said that targets had been met but urged Romanian authorities to press on with reforms. In March, the IMF and the EU had agreed to provide Romania with a fresh credit line of five billion euros ($6.8 billion dollars) to be drawn only in case of emergency. In June, Romania declined a first instalment, worth 481 million euros which the IMF had offered to disburse. Two years earlier, Romania had obtained a 20-billion-euro rescue package from the IMF, the EU and the World Bank which helped it emerge from the economic crisis. After two years of recession, the Romanian economy has recovered gradually, with growth expected to exceed 1.5 percent this year. Romania has promised to reduce its public deficit from 6.5 percent of output in 2010 to 4.4 percent this year, by keeping a tight lid on public-sector wages which were reduced by 25 percent last year.