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Igor Botan: Social costs for new IMF agreement will be very high


https://www.ipn.md/index.php/en/igor-botan-social-costs-for-new-imf-agreement-will-be-very-high-7978_1022043.html

Prime Minister Valeriu Strelet is anticipating the measures that have to be taken so that when the delegations of international financial institutions arrive, he will be able to tell them that the implementation of their requirements for a new agreement is already underway, according to political pundit Igor Botan. However, he admitted during an interview for Radio Free Europe that the social costs of these measures will be high and the burden will be carried by the people, IPN reports.

Igor Botan agrees with Prime Minister Strelet that one of the reasons behind the increased prices of bread is the stolen billion.

“We are currently in a very difficult situation and the way to get out of it is very important for Moldova. We should probably let this government take all the bad and unpopular decisions as soon as possible. This new incarnation of the Alliance for European Integration mus be allowed to negotiate and sign the agreement with the IMF so that the people will know who's to blame the worsening of the social situation in the country”, said Botan. He added that the second step the Strelet Cabinet must take is to transform the stolen billion into state debt, but it remains to be seen how this can be done.

“We must pass through this stage and act like citizens who understand that farmers and processing businesses need to be saved because they are an important part of the Moldovan economy”, stressed the analyst. According to Botan, the conditions demanded by the IMF to ameliorate the situation require painful measures and the politicians have to take them fast, in the early fall of 2015, and then the people will decide what to do next.

In his opinion, the country wouldn't have ended up in this situation if the leaders of the alliance had not divided politically amongst themselves law enforcing and regulatory institutions in 2010. Botan thinks the politicians should have respected the decision of the Constitutional Court from 2010, which separated political institutions from those of major public interest.