Lucian Croitoru, the Premier appointed by President Traian Basescu, yesterday tried in vain to gain political support from PSD (Social Democratic Party), PNL (National Liberal Party) and UDMR (Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania), while Romania continues to get negative signals about the funding from the IMF, EU and the World Bank.

Even after meeting with the representatives of the three parties, Croitoru only has the explicit support of PD-L (Democratic-Liberal Party), although he says he did explain to politicians "things he cannot explain before the press", among which the issue of covering the 3.5 billion euros needed to finance the budget deficit until the end of the year. He said he was not thinking of handing in his resignation from his office, as he was suggested to do by the parties allied against him.

PSD, PNL, and UDMR stood their ground, backing the nomination of Klaus Johannis and preparing a new official message for President Traian Basescu, asking him to reconsider.

As the political crisis evolves, NBR continues to fight the RON depreciation pressure, which has maintained the exchange rate at around 4.30 RON/EUR or 4.35 RON/EUR at exchange offices.

The pressure could get worse once Romania's main lenders - the IMF, the European Commission and the World Bank have announced one by one by the tranches scheduled for the end of the year would be postponed.

"We are looking forward to a new Cabinet in Bucharest urgently," Amelia Torres, spokesperson for the Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs Joaquin Almunia told ZF.

All three institutions said they would not send their assessment mission to Romania unless a new Government starts operating, which is the condition on which the fulfilment of all commitments undertaken in exchange for the money depend: from the approval of the 2010 budget to the legislation