CHISINAU -- Moldovan Economy Minister Valeriu Lazar says the government will have to freeze public-sector wages in hopes of securing a loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), RFE/RL's Moldovan Service reports.
Lazar told RFE/RL that the salary freeze will affect government employees and professional army officers who had been promised by the previous government a raise of up to 25 percent starting on October 1.
He said while those increases will be canceled, there will be no wage cuts like those in some other European countries that are mired in the financial crisis.
Moldova's new government, which was formed after a pro-Western coalition won the July 29 elections, has asked the IMF, the EU, and other international donors for loans to help trim the country's huge budget deficit.
The deficit has deepened due to the global economic downturn and the sharp drop in remittances sent home by the hundreds of thousands of Moldovans working abroad.
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