Brussels, 10/02/2015 (Agence Europe) - Romania and its institutional creditors have fallen out over two issues related to the energy sector.
“There are still two questions on which we have not reached an agreement: the liberalisation of gas prices for non-industrial consumers (…) and the future of the coal-based energy industry”, the Romanian Prime Minister, Victor Ponta, said on Monday 9 February, following an evaluation mission of the IMF and the European Union, which was carried out in the framework of the monitoring of the adjustment programme applied by Romania in exchange for preventative financial assistance, AFP reports (see EUROPE 11215 and 11100).
The IMF and the EU are insisting that gas prices be raised by around 6% from April. The Social Democrat government is refusing on the grounds that consumers would simply be unable to pay their bills, according to Ponta. Additionally, Romania's creditors want “a massive and radical restructuring of two energy companies, Oltenia and Hunedoara”, which would “lead to the loss of this industry and of tens of thousands of jobs”, the Prime Minister said.
In 2009, Romania received an emergency loan of €20 billion. In 2013, it concluded a two-year agreement with its institutional creditors on a preventative line of credit of €4 billion, which also provided for reforms to be set in place. A further IMF and EU mission will take place in April.
According to the winter forecasts of the European Commission (see EUROPE 11247), growth is expected to stand at 2.7% of GDP in 2015, following a level of 3% in 2014. The deficit is likely to be brought down to 1.5% of GDP in 2015, from a level of 1.8%, debt is expected to be around 40% of GDP and unemployment is set to remain unchanged at a level of less than 7%. (Mathieu Bion)