Comunicat de presă


Balance of Payments and External Debt - May 2010

13.07.2010

In January-May 2010 the balance-of-payments current account posted a deficit of EUR 2,865 million, 45.7 percent higher than in the same period of 2009, due largely to the 55.0 percent decrease year on year in current transfers surplus.

- EUR million -
  January-May 2009r January-May 2010p
CREDIT DEBIT NET CREDIT DEBIT NET
CURRENT ACCOUNT (A+B+C) 17,324 19,290 -1,966 18,608 21,473 -2,865
A. Goods and services 13,916 16,763 -2,847 16,226 19,008 -2,782
a. Goods (exports fob - imports fob)s 11,075 13,846 -2,771 13,820 16,264 -2,444
b. Services 2,841 2,917 -76 2,406 2,744 -338
- transport 824 765 59 816 824 -8
- tourism - travel 360 378 -18 274 398 -124
- other 1,657 1,774 -117 1,316 1,522 -206
B. Incomes 503 1,488 -985 370 1,292 -922
C. Current transfers 2,905 1,039 1,866 2,012 1,173 839

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 1,433 million (as compared with EUR 2,094 million over January-May 2009) covered 50.0 percent of the current account deficit in the first five months of 2010. Over January-May 2010, out of the total figure, equity stakes (including reinvested earnings) amounted to EUR 1,205 million (as compared with EUR 1,240 million over January-May 2009) and intra-group loans1 to EUR 228 million (as compared with EUR 854 million).

Medium- and long-term external debt at end-May 2010 stood at EUR 71,232 million (81.8 percent of total external debt), 8.6 percent above the level recorded at end-2009.

Short-term external debt at end-May 2010 totalled EUR 15,852 million (18.2 percent of total external debt), up 8.6 percent from end-2009.

Romania's external debt at end-May 2010*
and external debt service in January-May 2010
- EUR million -
  External debt balance External debt service
January-May 2010p
End-2009p End-May 2010p
I. Medium- and long-term external debt 65,604 71,232 5,008 
I.1. Direct public debta) 11,984 15,610 515 
I.2. Publicly guaranteed debtb) 1,521 1,869 81 
I.3. Non-publicly guaranteed debt 39,171 38,889 3,722 
I.4. Medium- and long-term deposits of non-residents 7,242 7,344 626e
I.5. IMF borrowingsc) 5,686 7,520 64 
II. Short-term external debt 14,596 15,852 8,350e
Total external debt (I+II) 80,200 87,084 13,358 

*) 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 30.9 percent in the five months of 2010, as compared with 33.1 percent in 2009. At end-May 2010, goods and services import cover3 stood at 9.3 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.