Romania has reversed its image as an economic “mediocre student” after the government weathered no- confidence votes and protests to adhere to International Monetary Fund demands for spending and job cuts, said the IMF’s mission chief to the Balkan country, Jefrey Franks, quoted in a Bloomberg article.

The second-poorest European Union member after Bulgaria probably will complete in April its EUR 13 billion($17.4 billion) bailout loan, the eighth accord with the IMF since the 1989 fall of communism, so it can win a precautionary standby agreement, said Jeffrey Franks (in picture, right) in a December 14 phone interview from the Washington-based lender’s headquarters.

The government of Prime Minister Emil Boc has struggled to quell parliamentary opposition and street demonstrations to austerity measures designed to keep bailout payments flowing into state coffers. The current agreement, part of a larger 20 billion-euro package reached with other international lenders, would only be the second that the country has completed in 20 years.

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editor@romania-insider.com