Romania's short-term objectives: joining OECD, emerging market status, entering Schengen area

Romania's short-term objectives are to join the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), acquire the emerging market status and enter the Schengen area, measures that will ensure the rapid development of the Romanian economy, Minister of Public Finance Eugen Teodorovici said in a meeting with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) delegation headed by Jaewoo Lee, the chief of the mission for Romania and Bulgaria, informs a Ministry of Finance release for AGERPRES. 

On Wednesday's meeting, the main topics tackled were the prospects for economic development, the plans to modernize revenue management and corporate governance. 

The IMF's mission in Bucharest is taking place 6 to 12 November with talks with the Romanian authorities being due to revolve around the 2018 budget execution, the macroeconomic outlook, the budget plans for 2019 and the progress on structural reforms. 

IMF Resident Representative for Romania and Bulgaria Alejandro Hajdenberg recently said that the visit of the international financial institution's team will also be used as preparation for the Article IV consultation mission to be held early next year. 

Currently, Romania does not have a financing agreement with the International Monetary Fund, but the financial institution assesses annually the evolution of the Romanian economy, based on the consultations on Article IV. 

In its latest World Economic Outlook, published in early October, the IMF revised downwards the estimates of the Romanian economy, both for this year and for next year after a moderation of the stimuli that led to the robust growth of 2017. 

In April, the IMF estimated that in 2018 Malta and Romania will record the largest economic growth in Europe of 5.7pct and 5.1pct, respectively, but in the report published in October, the international financial institution revised downwards to 4pct the forecasts on the advance of the Romanian economy, predicting that in 2019 Romania will register an economic growth of 3.4pct, by 0.1 percentage points less than estimated in April.