Comunicat de presă


Balance of Payments in January-October 2008

12.12.2008

In January-October 2008, the balance-of-payments current account posted a deficit of EUR 14,437 million, 10.9 percent higher compared to January-October 2007, due largely to the wider trade deficit (EUR 15,485 million), up 10.2 percent from the same period of last year. Export growth outpaced import growth by 3.1 percentage points January through October 2008.
 

                                                                                                                                        - EUR million -
  January - October 2007* January - October 2008**
CREDIT DEBIT NET CREDIT DEBIT NET
CURRENT ACCOUNT (A+B+C)    38,290    51,303   -13,013   45,284   59,721 -  14,437
A. Goods and services    30,268    43,709   -13,441   36,033   51,075   -15,042
a. Goods (exports fob - imports fob)***    24,472    38,518   -14,046   29,020   44,505   -15,485
b. Services     5,796     5,191        605     7,013     6,570        443
- transport     1,592     1,955       -363     2,299     2,252          47
- tourism - travel        986        920          66     1,154     1,478       -324
- other     3,218     2,316        902     3,560     2,840        720
B. Incomes     2,026     5,651    -3,625     1,892     6,443    -4,551
C. Current transfers     5,996     1,943     4,053     7,359     2,203     5,156
* revised data
** provisional data
*** Source: National Institute of Statistics; imports fob are calculated based on CIF/FOB conversion coefficient of 1.0834 set by the NIS.

Foreign direct investment worth EUR 8,157 million covered 56.5 percent of the current account deficit in January-October 2008. Equity stakes and reinvested earnings accounted for 51.3 percent of the total figure, with intra-group loans 1 making up 48.7 percent.

Medium- and long-term external debt2 at end-October 2008 added 27.7 percent against end-2007 to EUR 49,097 million.

Public and publicly guaranteed external debt at end-October 2008 totalled EUR 10,748 million, accounting for 21.9 percent of medium- and long-term external debt, compared with 26.5 percent at end-2007.

Non-publicly guaranteed external debt came in at EUR 32,413 million at end-October 2008, rising 29.5 percent from year-end 2007.

Romania's medium- and long-term external debt at end-October 2008* and external debt service in January-October 2008

                                                                                                                                                                                     - EUR million -
  Medium- and long-term external debt External debt service January - October 2008p
Balance at end-2007r Balance at end-October 2008p
1. DIRECT PUBLIC DEBTa)                   8,178                8,899                1,836
2. PUBLICLY GUARANTEED DEBTb),
of which:
                  2,018                1,849                   336
- public sectorc)                   1,967                1,815                   319
- private sectord)                       51                    34                    17
3. Non-publicly guaranteed debt                 25,037               32,413                  6,303
4. External debt (1+2+3)                 35,233               43,161                  8,475
5. Medium- and long-term deposits of non-residents                  3,219                5,936                   909e      
Total external debt (4+5)                38,452               49,097                  9,384

*) The balance of medium- and long-term external debt is cash-based (not including unmatured accrued interest).
a) external loans taken directly by the Ministry of Economy and Finance/local general government in compliance with the legislation on public debt
b) external loans guaranteed by the Ministry of Economy and Finance/local general government in compliance with the legislation on public debt
c) financial and non-financial corporations with majority state-owned capital
d) financial and non-financial corporations with majority private capital
r - revised data
p - provisional data
e - estimates

goods and services import cover4 stood at 5.7 months versus 6.1 months at year-end 2007.


Notes:

  1. Loans between the foreign investor and the resident firm.
  2. External debt balance is subject to monthly revision.
  3. External debt service ratio is computed as a ratio of medium- and long-term external debt service to exports of goods and services.
  4. Import cover is computed as a ratio of the NBR's official reserves (foreign exchange + gold) at end of period to average monthly imports of goods and services for the period under review.