A mission of the European Department of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) headed by Mr. Graeme Justice worked in Chişinău during December 4-15, 2008.  The main task of the IMF mission has been to conduct the Fifth Review under the PRGF arrangement^[1].

The mission was pleased to note good performance under the program, with inflation falling to single digits and strong economic growth. Reforms under the program have, with some exceptions, been implemented as scheduled. The financial system has been resilient to the global financial crisis. However, the mission shares the government’s concerns about the impact of  economic downturn in the region and has discussed the appropriate policy response to mitigate any impact on Moldova. The mission stressed the increased importance of maintaining prudent macroeconomic policies in 2009.

This has been reflected in the updated Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies (MEFP) for 2009. This agreement, as always, will need to be reviewed by the IMF Management, following which it will be submitted to the IMF’s Executive Directors for consideration. It is expected that the transfer of the next tranche of about 18 million USD will be approved early 2009. The next IMF mission is tentatively scheduled for late February 2009.