Comunicat de presă


Balance of payments and external debt, September 2011

15.11.2011

In January-September 2011 the balance-of-payments current account posted a deficit of EUR 3,795 million, 10.8 percent lower than in the same year-ago period, due mainly to the decrease in trade deficit by 13.2 percent and the increase in current transfers surplus by 8.7 percent (on the back of net transfers to the general government).

- EUR million -
  January-September 2010r January-September 2011p
CREDIT DEBIT NET CREDIT DEBIT NET
CURRENT ACCOUNT (A+B+C) 36,737 40,990  -4,253 43,898 47,693  -3,795
A. Goods and services 31,729 36,647  -4,918 38,809  43,292  -4,483
a. Goods (exports fob – imports fob)s 26,932 31,303  -4,371 33,450 37,243 -3,793
b. Services 4,797 5,344  -547 5,359 6,049  -690
- transport 1,401 1,541 -140 1,674 1,884  -210
- tourism-travel 645 927  -282 762 1,070  -308
- other 2,751 2,876  -125 2,923 3,095  -172
B. Incomes 679 2,336 -1,657 865  2,701 -1,836
C. Current transfers 4,329 2,007 2,322 4,224  1,700   2,524

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 1,175 million1 (down 54.1 percent year on year) covered 31.0 percent of the current account deficit in January-September 2011. Out of the total figure, equity stakes consolidated with the estimated net loss amounted to EUR 943 million and intra-group loans2 totalled EUR 232 million.

Medium- and long-term external debt at end-September 2011 stood at EUR 75,292 million (76.9 percent of total external debt), 3.3 percent above the level recorded at end-2010.

Short-term external debt at end-September 2011 totalled EUR 22,642 million (23.1 percent of total external debt), up 15.8 percent from end-2010.

Romania's external debt at end-September 2011*
and external debt service in January-September 2011
- EUR million -
  External debt External debt service
January-September 2011p
End-2010r End-September 2011p
I. Medium- and long-term external debt 72,909 75,292 10,127
I.1. Direct public debta) 16,158 18,715 1,690
I.2. Publicly guaranteed debtb) 1,708 1,539 185
I.3. Non-publicly guaranteed debt 37,733 36,927 6,493
I.4. Medium- and long-term deposits of non-residents 8,228 8,186 1,558e
I.5. IMF borrowingsc) 9,082 9,925 201
II. Short-term external debt 19,551 22,642 17,838e
Total external debt (I+II) 92,460  97,934 27,965

*) 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 26.1 percent in January-September 2011, against 33.4 percent in 2010. At end-September 2011, goods and services import cover4 stood at 7.8 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.