The International Monetary Fund told the Romanian Government it disagrees with increasing the minimum wage in 2011 to over RON 650 (around EUR 151), people with direct knowledge of talks told Mediafax newswire. During talks with the IMF, the Romanian Government coalition leaders put forward several propositions, such as increasing the minimum wage from RON 600 to RON 700, lowering social contributions to 41 percent from 44 percent and reducing the flat tax rate to 12 percent from 16 percent.

The head of the International Monetary Fund mission to Bucharest, Jeffrey Franks, said recently that there might be room for an increase of the Romanian minimum wage, but any decision in this respect should be carefully analyzed, as a too high increase could have negative effects.

Mediafax