An increase of the minimum salary to over 700 lei, a decrease of the flat tax to 12% and a decrease of contributions for salaries to 41% might affect the deficit target settled with the IMF, IMF Romania chief Tonny Lybek declared for the Romanian news agency Agerpres.

According to quoted sources, Lybek reminded that Romanian authorities and the IMF agreed to have a 6.8% deficit for 2010. The mission of the next IMF delegation will be to talk the budget draft for 2011 and analyze the progress made so far. He underlined that the mission will also dwell on the measures that will need to be taken to ensure macroeconomic and financial stability from now on.

Lybek told the press that it is unusual for the IMF to close its eyes three times on the same conditionality - Romania's debts to the private sector but that authorities needed to take a series of measures before the Board's meeting was held, for the IMF to close its eyes for the third time.

The IMF delegation will analyze the situation of the state's debt to the private sector, the progress made so far and the next steps to be taken to ensure financial stability.