Comunicat de presă


Balance of payments and external debt, July 2011

12.09.2011

In January-July 2011 the balance-of-payments current account posted a deficit of EUR 2,825 million, 24.4 percent lower than in the same year-ago period, due mainly to the decrease in trade deficit by 19.3 percent and the increase in current transfers surplus by 23.2 percent (on the back of net transfers to the general government).

- EUR million -
  January-July 2010r January-July 2011p
CREDIT DEBIT NET CREDIT DEBIT NET
CURRENT ACCOUNT (A+B+C) 27,896  31,633  -3,737 33,663 36,488  -2,825
A. Goods and services 24,080  28,229  -4,149 29,771  33,187  -3,416
a. Goods (exports fob – imports fob)s 20,558  24,093  -3,535 25,808  28,659  -2,851
b. Services 3,522  4,136  -614 3,963 4,528  -565
- transport 1,066  1,198  -132 1,204  1,445  -241
- tourism-travel 474  663  -189 552  778  -226
- other 1,982 2,275  -293 2,207  2,305  -98
B. Incomes 632  1,762  -1,130 634  1,942 -1,308
C. Current transfers 3,184  1,642 1,542  3,258  1,359   1,899

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 1,105 million1 (down 30.5 percent as compared to January-July 2010) covered 39.1 percent of the current account deficit in January-July 2011. Out of the total figure, equity stakes consolidated with the estimated net loss amounted to EUR 682 million and intra-group loans2 totalled EUR 423 million.

Medium- and long-term external debt at end-July 2011 stood at EUR 75,814 million (78.9 percent of total external debt), 4.2 percent above the level recorded at end-2010.

Short-term external debt at end-July 2011 totalled EUR 20,315 million (21.1 percent of total external debt), up 12.1 percent from end-2010.

Romania's external debt at end-July 2011*
and external debt service in January-July 2011
- EUR million -
  External debt External debt service
January-July 2011p
End-2010r End-July 2011p
I. Medium- and long-term external debt 72,788 75,814 6,771
I.1. Direct public debta) 16,022 18,691 1,369
I.2. Publicly guaranteed debtb) 1,708 1,576 138
I.3. Non-publicly guaranteed debt 37,748 37,326 4,442
I.4. Medium- and long-term deposits of non-residents 8,227 8,538 693e
I.5. IMF borrowingsc) 9,083 9,683 129
II. Short-term external debt 18,120 20,315  14,177e
Total external debt (I+II) 90,908 96,129  20,948

*) 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     r - revised data

Medium- and long-term external debt service ratio3 ran at 22.7 percent in January-July 2011, against 33.3 percent in 2010. At end-July 2011, goods and services import cover4 stood at 7.7 months, as compared to 8.6 months at end-2010.


Notes:

  1. Estimated data
  2. Loans between parent company and its resident branch.
  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.