IMF/EU Delegation To Visit Romania Next Week – Interim Fin Min

"We will meet with the representatives of the IMF and the Commission early next week for a general discussion on the 2010 draft budget, the revenue and expenditure predicted for the next year. Some members of the delegation will arrive Monday, and the rest Tuesday," Pogea said.

He said the 2010 draft budget will be presented at an informal government meeting after talks with the IMF delegation.

Romania has been in the hands of a caretaker government since mid-October, after the centrist minority Cabinet led by Premier Emil Boc failed a no-confidence vote in parliament.

The eastern European country has plunged deeper into political turmoil early December, when the leftist opposition Social Democrats challenged in court the presidential elections won by incumbent President Traian Basescu.

The court decided earlier Friday the elections authority must recount roughly 138,000 votes to determine if allegations of rigging were grounded.

Romania, hit hard by the global crisis, relies heavily on a EUR20 million IMF-led loan package obtained in the spring.

The country has received so far around EUR7 billion from IMF in two installments, and was scheduled to get another EUR1.5 billion in December.

However, both the IMF and the EU had said they would delay new tranches until Romania has a functioning government.

IMF's official Tonny Lybek said in November that prolonged political uncertainty in Romania and the failure to adopt the 2010 budget in time could prompt the Fund to release its third and fourth loan tranches together, in March next year, subject to a new quarterly assessment.

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