OREANDA-NEWS. May 12, 2012. A mission of the International Monetary Fund started an assessment visit to Chisinau. The mission had expert-level meetings at the National Bank of Moldova, Finance Ministry, Economics Ministry and National Statistics Bureau, according to the IMF Representation in Moldova.

During two weeks, the IMF mission will assess the way the Moldovan authorities fulfilled commitments in the programme supported by the International Monetary Fund with a loan worth 369.6 million special drawing rights (568 million dollars).

Among the issues to be discussed, there is the fiscal management and the way the latter's reform is implemented, budget revenues, debts triggered by the thermal and energy sector and a memorandum that the local authorities were to sign to improve the situation in the field. Another topic will be creation of a legal framework for ensuring a better transparency as regards the banks' stockholders.

"The mission will analyze the recent evolutions in the economy, will update the data and will evaluate the prospects at the macroeconomic level, and will also discuss with the authorities the long-run macroeconomic policies", IMF Resident Representative in Moldova Tokhir Mirzoev has said.

Certain indexes are to be revised, such as the economic growth, that shows signs of slowdown, and the inflation rate.

On the days to come, the mission will hold discussions on fulfillment of the commitments taken by the signing of an additional memorandum on economic and financial policies on 12 January 2012.

This is the fifth assessment of the IMF-backed programme via the financing facilities ECF (Extended Crediting Facility) and EFF (Extended Financing Facility).

Moldova's programme with the IMF is for a three-year period, and was approved on 29 January 2010. It is backed by a loan amounting to 369.6 million special drawing rights, of which 270 million (about 415 million dollars) have been already earmarked. A half of the credit is provided under the extended crediting facility, which sees a zero interest rate by late 2013, a 5.5-year grace period and a ten-year repayment period. The rest of the credit is offered under the extended financing facility, which envisages a yearly interest rate equal to the basic interest rate for special drawing rights (1.15 per cent now), a ten-year repayment period and a 4.5-year grace period.