The proponents of an agreement with the IMF are afraid they will be unable to conduct a good macroeconomic policy, Finance Minister Plamen Oresharski, who tops the Bourgas list of the Coalition for Bulgaria for the July 5 parliamentary elections, told a news conference in this city on Wednesday.

Oresharski was commenting on a recent political discussion about a possible agreement with the IMF. He said this would rank Bulgaria among the financially untrustworthy countries of Europe, robbing it of investor confidence and even driving investors away.

Oresharski also said that an agreement with the IMF would delay Bulgaria's entry into the Eurozone. He added that the financing Bulgaria would receive from the IMF would be in the form of balance-of-payments support and would be unavailable for spending.

The finance minister said that judging from the experience of Romania, Latvia and Hungary, the government would have to meet certain conditions after signing an agreement with the IMF. They are likely to include streamlining of the public sector, wage cuts and cuts in public expenditures. He said that these parameters would be subject to negotiation and if agreement was reached, they would be discussed in detail.

The next government should establish even tighter control on expenditures to end the year with a balanced budget and should prepare an austerity budget for 2010, Oresharski said.

Source: BTA