Comunicat de presă


Balance of Payments and External Debt - November 2008

15.01.2009

In January-November 2008, the balance-of-payments current account posted a deficit of EUR 15,995 million, 7.8 percent higher compared to January-November 2007, due largely to the wider trade deficit (EUR 16,913 million), up 6.0 percent from the same period of last year. Export growth outpaced import growth by 3.7 percentage points January through November 2008.

- EUR million -
  January - November 2007* January - November 2008**
CREDIT DEBIT NET CREDIT DEBIT NET
CURRENT ACCOUNT (A+B+C) 42,377 57,210 -14,833 49,394 65,389 -15,995
A. Goods and services 33,572 48,992 -15,420 39,515 55,714 -16,199
a. Goods (exports fob - imports fob)*** 27,258 43,209 -15,951 31,585 48,498 -16,913
b. Services 6,314 5,783 531 7,930 7,216 714
- transport 1,746 2,189 -443 2,492 2,467 25
- tourism - travel 1,079 1,022 57 1,240 1,372 -132
- other 3,489 2,572 917 4,198 3,377 821
B. Incomes 2,215 6,069 -3,854 2,040 7,241 -5,201
C. Current transfers 6,590 2,149 4,441 7,839 2,434 5,405

* 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 8,645 million covered 54.0 percent of the current account deficit in January-November 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-November 2008 added 29.2 percent against end-2007 to EUR 49,718 million.

Public and publicly guaranteed external debt at end-November 2008 totalled EUR 10,783 million, accounting for 21.7 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 33,063 million at end-November 2008, rising 32.0 percent from year-end 2007.

Romania's medium- and long-term external debt at end-November 2008* and external debt service
in January-November 2008
- EUR million -
  Medium- and long-term external debt External debt service January - November 2008p
Balance at end-2007r Balance at end-November 2008p
1. DIRECT PUBLIC DEBTa) 8,180 8,934 1,992
2. PUBLICLY GUARANTEED DEBTb),
of which:
2,018 1,849 346
- public sectorc) 1,967 1,815 329
- private sectord) 51 34 17
3. Non-publicly guaranteed debt 25,057 33,063 6,715
4. External debt (1+2+3) 35,255 43,846 9,053
5. Medium- and long-term deposits of non-residents 3,218 5,872 972e
Total external debt (4+5) 38,473 49,718 10,025

*) 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 Public Finance and local general government in compliance with the legislation on public debt

b) external loans guaranteed by the Ministry of Public Finance and 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 5.8 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.