NBM President: A New Program with the IMF Will Not Be Signed until the End of the Year

The head of the National Bank, Octavian Armasu, is confident that a new program with the IMF will not be signed by the end of the year. According to him, due to such negative initiatives as the Law of Government Bonds abolition aimed at fulfilling the payment obligations arising from government guarantees by the Ministry of Finance, or the “billion law,” the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will be forced to take a step back. At the same time, possible negotiations with the IMF will be much more difficult. The clarification was made in a press interview,  ipn.md reported. According to the NBM President, among the actions to be carried out by the national authorities after the Moldovan authorities and IMF representatives adopted the economic reform program at the expert level in July 2020, amendments were made to the legislative framework to strengthen the independence of the National Bank of Moldova, and also the appointment by the parliament of new deputy presidents of the NBM. The candidacy of Alexandru Savva for this post was proposed to parliament back in May 2020 after the post of vice president became vacant. Subsequently, after the mandates of the other two vice-presidents expired in July this year, candidates were proposed to parliament for these positions. All candidates are very good specialists, the NBM President assures. He says that they are honest, responsible people, capable of working in the interests of the state and for the benefit of citizens. Until now the parliament has not approved all the candidates.