An International Monetary Fund (IMF) official pointed out Wednesday that Romania faces two major economic imbalances in the fields of payments and deficits.

The first imbalance concerns the balance of payments, as Romania has been importing more than it has exported, Jeffrey Franks, head of the IMF Mission for Romania, told a press conference.

This will be no issue with any country as long as there is enough foreign capital inflow to finance the deficit, Franks said. He added that facing the new global conditions, getting liquidity is not easy.

Franks said that without international financial support, the deficit can be cut but there is no money to do so now. In such a case, Romania will have to dramatically readjust its economic activities, he said.

The second imbalance mentioned by Franks has to do with the government deficit, which has been on the rise in recent years.

Franks pointed out Romania's deficit has been steadily high despite the strong economic growth it has experienced, adding that Romania can no longer afford the luxury of such deficits due to no easy financing now in the international financial sector.

Jeffrey Franks headed a mission in Bucharest on March 11-25 aimed at holding talks on a possible IMF program for Romania.

According to Franks, Romania will receive about 12.95 billion euros (US$17.5 billion) from the IMF, approximately 5 billion euros (US$6.7 billion) from the European Union and up to 1.5 billion euros (US$2 billion) from the World Bank.

Supplementary financing, up to 1 billion euros (US$1.35 billion), is to be added by some other international financial organizations.

(Xinhua News Agency March 26, 2009)