Lybek, IMF: Romania needs to learn to live within its means

Romania needs to adapt to living within its means, says Tony Lybek, the representative of the IMF for Romania and Bulgaria, in an interview for BURSA.

"There can be indeed good intentions when it comes to keeping government spending unchanged or increasing it, but it is the duty of politicians to identify additional sources of tax revenues to finance these expenses, or at least to reconsider their priorities", he said.

Tony Lybek considers that Romania will continue to meet its commitments to the IMF and to the other European financial institutions, and went on to say: "It is true that there have been derogations when it comes to meeting the objective of cutting arrears, but the Government did make efforts in this respect".

The IMF official also said that the Government made progress from a legislative point of view.

"For instance, the reform of the pension system will be implemented by the end of June this year. This is the largest fiscal challenge Romania will face in the short term, and it will protect the purchasing power of pensioner, in spite of the promises which can"t be honored with the current revenue package", Lybek said.

He confirmed that the next visit of the Washington board will take place in late April - early May.

He explained: "This means that an IMF team will come to Washington to review and discuss the data provided by the Romanian authorities, as well as to make sure that the political authorities will continue to honor their commitments. The IMF team will also be joined by officials of the European Commission and of the World Bank".