South Korean Jaewoo Lee was appointed the new head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission to Romania. He will replace Reza Baqir, who was in office from January last year.

Jaewoo Lee previously headed the IMF mission to Sri Lanka. He also worked as university economics professor in California and was chief economist for Korea at Merrill Lynch. He will also coordinate IMF’s relation with Bulgaria.

The IMF has recently warned Romania that its economy sees increased overheating risk. The government should withdraw the fiscal stimulus and reduce the budget deficit as the economy is growing above its potential, with the risk of fueling inflation and unbalancing the country's external position.

Romania ended its last preventive agreement with the IMF in 2015 when it also finished paying back the emergency loan taken in 2009.

editor@romania-insider.com