World Bank Approves 300 Mio EUR Loan To Romania

A.S.

The World Bank late last week approved a 300 million EUR loan to Romania within a proposed 3-part Development Policy Loan programme totalling a projected 1 billion EUR. "This Loan supports the implementation of the Government"s programme aiming to strengthen public expenditure management, to cushion the impact of the crisis on the poor and vulnerable, and to minimize risks of a domestic financial sector crisis by addressing current and potential vulnerabilities," said Benoit Blarel, World Bank Country Manager for Romania.

In turn, Swati Ghosh, Task Team Leader for the programme, said: "Tackling the structural reform agenda is particularly important since strengthening the resilience of the economy will better position Romania to resume and sustain high growth over the medium-term. The Bank is well placed to engage in these areas as it can draw on its rich base of analytic work, and an ongoing policy dialogue"

The second part of the 1 billion EUR loan programme will amount to 360 million EUR and could be released by the end of the year. The final part will amount to 340 million EUR and is planned for mid-2010.Upon entering the Development Policy Loan programme, the World Bank asked the Romanian Government to reform the public administration, the financial sector and social protection.

Romania signed a two-year financing agreement for 19.95 billion EUR in March. Of the total sum, 12.95 billion EUR will be provided by the International Monetary Fund, 5 billion EUR by the European Commission, 1 billion EUR by the World Bank and 1 billion EUR jointly by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the European Investment Bank and the International Finance Corporation.