The Balkan nation Romania - after Latvia and Hungary - becomes the third European Union nation receive aid from the Washington-based International Monetary Fund
(IMF) recently, along with loans from loans from EU, World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).

For financing its deficits, amid shrinking economy and plunging revenues, Romania will get a total aid of 20 billion euros. Of this amount, 12.95 billion euros will come from the IMF; 5 billion euros from the EU; and 1 billion euros each from the World Bank and the EBRD.

The Romania loan brings the total funds extended to Eastern Europe to over $60 billion. Latvia, Hungary, Ukraine, Belarus, and Serbia have earlier sought bailouts for averting defaults and aid banks.

In the statement elaborating on the aid to Romania, IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said: "An IMF staff mission and the Romanian authorities have today reached agreement, subject to approval by IMF management and the executive board, on an economic program. The objective of the policy package is to cushion the effects of the sharp drop in private capital inflows."

The IMF said the aid would help strengthen the country's fiscal policy and reduce the government's needs for financing. With improved long-term sustainability, Romania will be able to prepare itself for its planned "entry into the Euro zone" by 2014.