Romania to cut 600 postal jobs in accord with IMF: report

(BUCHAREST) - Romania's centre-right government has agreed to an IMF call to cut 600 jobs in the state-owned postal service before opening it up to private capital, the Mediafax news agency reported Sunday.

Citing a written agreement between the IMF and the government, the agency reported that the job cuts had to come before the end of March.

The government must then find one investor or more to take a stake of up to 20 percent in the country's postal service, it added.

Romania won a 20-billion-euro credit line ($26 billion) from the International Monetary Fund, the European Union and the World Bank between 2009 and 2011 to get itself out of recession.

It subsequently agreed another deal under which it could borrow another five billion euros if needed.

In return, it has to submit to regular evaluations by inspectors from its international creditors and follow their instructions on maintaining a balanced budget.

The IMF and EU have for some months now been insisting on the need to restructure state-run operations, including its postal service.

Already since 2011, the number of post offices has been cut from 7,100 to 5,835, in a country where nearly half of the 19 million inhabitants live in rural areas.

That number should be cut even further to 5,700 by April, Mediafax reported, citing the same document.

Since the end of 2010, postal services in 16 EU member states have been completely liberalised, with another 11 member states due to follow by the end of 2012.