Dodon: Moldova Will Not Be in Time to Sign a New $ 558 Million Program with the IMF

Moldova will not be in time to sign the Memorandum and a new $ 558 million program with the IMF, which is designed for three years - 2020-2023. This stated on Friday the incumbent President Igor Dodon in his traditional program on social networks "President Answering",  infotag.md reported. “At the end of 2020, Moldova fulfilled all the preconditions for signing the new program,” Dodon said, making it clear that the problem is now in Washington. The preconditions related to three painful issues for Moldova: legal reform, independence of the National Bank of Moldova (NBM) consolidation, approving three vice-presidents for the NBM, whose positions have been vacant since this summer. Earlier, Prime Minister Ion Chicu expressed great hope that the parliament will take all decisions related to of Moldova fulfilling conditions for signing the Memorandum with the IMF. The prime minister made it clear that by mid-December the IMF Board of Directors might approve a new program for Moldova. Earlier, the authorities of the republic pinned their hope that the IMF Board of Directors would approve a new program for Moldova in mid-September, but by that time the Moldovan side had not fulfilled the fund preconditions. The condition for the parliament to approve three NBM’s vice-presidents has not been fulfilled so far.