The Washington-based lender revived the aid deal in February after putting it on hold due to political wrangling last year, but warned the recession-hit European Union state faced major fiscal challenges ahead.
The IMF will check on Romania's progress in cutting its budget deficit, including painful reforms of its sprawling and inefficient public administration and layoff plans that have triggered strike threats from powerful unions.
'The next review mission will take place in late April and early May. Tentative days are April 27 to May 7,' Lybek said.
Under the terms of the deal, Romania has pledged to lower its budget deficit from last year's 7.2 percent of gross domestic product to 5.9 percent this year and below the EU's Maastricht cap of 3 percent by 2012.
While Romania met an end-March target to approve a key fiscal responsibility law to make public spending more efficient, it still needs to meet an end-June target to reform its communist-era pension system.
The Fund also envisions quarterly budget deficit targets and spending caps for 10 key, loss-making state companies to help the government better control expenditure.
Analysts have said meeting this year's deficit target is at risk after a slew of worse-than-expected macroeconomic data suggested the economy might still be in recession, hurting tax receipts.
Earlier this month, the head of the IMF's review mission for Romania Jeffrey Franks said the economy could grow around 1 percent this year, slightly less than the initial estimate of 1.3 percent.
(Reporting by Luiza Ilie; Editing by Stephen Nisbet) Keywords: ROMANIA IMF/REVIEW (luiza.ilie@reuters.com ; +40 21 315 8320; Reuters Messaging: luiza.ilie.reuters.com@reuters.net ) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2010. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.
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