The International Monetary Fund agreed on July 26 to provide Moldova with $179 million in loans over three years if the government carries out economic reforms.
Moldova is one of Europe's poorest nations and the news is a boost to the new government in office since January. The IMF left Moldova in September 2015, saying it would not negotiate loans in light of the disappearance of some $1 billion from three Moldovan banks in a scandal that rocked the country.
Moldovan Prime Minister Pavel Filip told The Associated Press that the IMF's return to Moldova "brings back optimism at home and helps restore our credibility abroad."
Filip added his government remains committed to European-style reforms and is "keen to attract foreign investment: in this sense we undertook a series of economic and banking reforms, which provide the basis for future sustainable growth."
The IMF, whose staff visited Chisinau for 10 days, stressed that the government needs to improve the business climate, carry out critical banking reforms, and ramp up its anti-corruption fight to access the loans.
The deal must also be approved by the IMF's board in October.
