The Central Bank's chief economist, Valentin Lazea declared on Thursday that Romania might need a loan after the first half of the year, the amount depending on the balance deficit. Lazea mentioned that Romania's short-term debt is 24 billion Euros, mostly due in the second half of 2009, while the medium and long term debt reached 49.7 billion Euros.

"We don't need foreign financing at this point, but we may need it in the second half of the year", said Lazea, emphasizing that, in order to obtain such a loan, the state budget must be first adopted by the Parliament, in the same shape as it was voted by the Government, mainly in the salary policies chapter.

After the budget is adopted and the salary policies are applied, monetary relaxation may follow, and only then a loan can be demanded from an international institutions, in case discussions with the European Commission lead to such an agreement.

According to the Central Bank data, Romania's foreign deficit increased 1.2% in 2008, up to 16.9 billion Euros, representing 12.1% of the gross domestic product.