Chitoiu said the government held preliminary talks with World Bank officials regarding a EUR1 billion loan from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development in 2014.
“The project will be considered as a stand-alone loan, but in fact it will be part of a series of four programmatic loans, of EUR1 billion for each year,” Chitoiu said in a statement.
In October, Romania drew EUR700 million under a EUR1 billion development policy loan secured from the IBRD in 2012. An unspent balance of EUR300 million remains available under the program.
Chitoiu said the reforms attached to the new loan, which must be implemented by the end of February next year, target the management of public debt and expenditure, economic investment, taxation and a series of measures in the energy sector, the bulk of which have been already implemented under Romania’s loan programs with the International Monetary Fund and the EU.
“The World Bank experts are very pleased with Romania’s progress in the sector,” Chitoiu said.
He said the loan program would be discussed in detail during a pre-appraisal mission scheduled for December.