A Social-Democrat lawmaker, Darius Valcov, was named on Wednesday as Romania's budget minister, a key position in a country closely monitored by the International Monetary Fund. Valcov, 37, who has an economics background, was mayor of the southern Romanian town of Slatina between 2004 and 2012 before being elected to the upper house of parliament. He will be in charge of monitoring public debt and Romania's main pointman for negotiations with the IMF.
Valcov's first challenge will be to convince the fund that Romania can afford to cut labour taxes by five percent. The leftist government decided to cut the tax from October 1, despite reservations voiced by IMF auditors who said the move would increase the public deficit. Romania has long planned to reduce social security contributions from 45 percent - one of the highest rates in the European Union - hoping this will spur job creation.