Comunicat de presă


Balance of Payments and External Debt - 2010 Q1

17.05.2010

In 2010 Q1 the balance-of-payments current account posted a deficit of EUR 1,506 million, 65.5 percent higher than in the same period of 2009, due largely to the 62.8 percent decrease year on year in current transfers surplus.

- EUR million -
  2009 Q1r 2010 Q1p
CREDIT DEBIT NET CREDIT DEBIT NET
CURRENT ACCOUNT (A+B+C) 10,525 11,435 -910 10,642 12,148 -1,506
A. Goods and services 8,280 9,891 -1,611 9,220 10,662 -1,442
a. Goods (exports fob - imports fob)s 6,601 8,148 -1,547 7,879 9,048 -1,169
b. Services 1,679 1,743 -64 1,341 1,614 -273
- transport 482 459 23 410 480 -70
- tourism - travel 200 214 -14 115 234 -119
- other 997 1,070 -73 816 900 -84
B. Incomes 309 827 -518 207 725 -518
C. Current transfers 1,936 717 1,219 1,215 761 454

r  - revised data
p - provisional data
s  - Source: National Institute of Statistics (NIS); imports FOB are calculated based on CIF/FOB conversion coefficient of 1.0834 set by the NIS.

Non-residents’ direct investment in Romania worth EUR 754 million (as compared with EUR 1,475 million over January-March 2009) covered 50.1 percent of the current account deficit over 2010 Q1. Over the first three months of 2010, out of the total figure, equity stakes (including reinvested earnings) amounted to EUR 650 million (as compared with EUR 993 million over January-March 2009) and intra-group loans1 to EUR 104 million (as compared with EUR 482 million).

Medium- and long-term external debt at end-March 2010 stood at EUR 70,157 million (81.5 percent of total external debt), 6.9 percent above the level recorded at end-2009.

Short-term external debt at end-March 2010 totalled EUR 15,877 million (18.5 percent of total external debt), up 8.8 percent from end-2009.

Romania's external debt at end-March 2010*
and external debt service over 2010 Q1
- EUR million -
  External debt balance External debt service
2010 Q1p
End-2009p End-March 2010p
I. Medium- and long-term external debt 65,604 70,157 3,191 
I.1. Direct public debta) 11,984 15,347 234 
I.2. Publicly guaranteed debtb) 1,521 1,854 49 
I.3. Non-publicly guaranteed debt 39,171 38,391 2,499 
I.4. Medium- and long-term deposits of non-residents 7,242 7,444 393e
I.5. IMF borrowingsc) 5,686 7,121 16 
II. Short-term external debt 14,596 15,877 5,440e
Total external debt (I+II) 80,200 86,034 8,631 

*) The balance of external debt is cash-based (excluding unmatured accrued interest); the IMF’s SDR allocations are not included.
a) external loans taken directly by the Ministry of Public Finance and local general government in compliance with the legislation on public debt, including Government Emergency Ordinance 99/2009 ratifying the Stand-by Arrangement between Romania and the IMF;
b) external loans guaranteed by the Ministry of Public Finance and local general government in compliance with the legislation on public debt;
c) under the Stand-by Arrangement concluded with the IMF, excluding the amount received by the Ministry of Public Finance from the IMF according to Government Emergency Ordinance 99/2009.
e- estimates     p - provisional data

Medium- and long-term external debt service ratio2 ran at 34.6 percent in the first quarter of 2010, compared with 33.1 percent in 2009. At end-March 2010, goods and services import cover3 stood at 9.8 months versus 8.6 months at year-end 2009.


Notes:

  1. Loans between parent company and its resident branch
  2. External debt service ratio is computed as a ratio of medium- and long-term external debt service to exports of goods and services.
  3. 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.