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Balance of payments and external debt, March 2012

16.05.2012

In January - March 2012p, the balance-of-payments current account posted a deficit of EUR 544 million, 43.7 percent lower from the same year-ago period, due mainly to the 52.2 percent increase in the current transfers surplus supported by almost one fourth increase in the income balance deficit.

- EUR million -
 January - March 2011rJanuary - March 2012p
CREDIT DEBIT NET CREDIT DEBIT NET
CURRENT ACCOUNT (A+B+C) 14,230 15,197  -967 14,814 15,358 -544
A. Goods and services 12,515 13,526 -1,011 12,650 13,789 -1,139
a. Goods (exports fob – imports fob)s 11,045 12,035 -990 10,998 12,165 -1,167
b. Services 1,470 1,491 -21 1,652 1,624 28
- transport 458 296 162 449 320 129
- tourism-travel 210 273 -63 222 290 -68
- other 802 922 -120 981 1,014 -33
B. Incomes 260 956 -696 286 817 -531
C. Current transfers 1,455 715 740 1,878 752 1,126

p - provisional data
r  - revised data
s  - Source: National Institute of Statistics (NIS) - International Trade of Goods. Imports FOB are calculated by the NBR based on the CIF/FOB conversion coefficient set by the NIS. Starting January 2012, the former CIF/FOB conversion coefficient of 1.0834 will be replaced by the new coefficient of 1.0430. In order to ensure imports FOB data comparability, the monthly data series for 2010 and 2011 have been recalculated accordingly.

Non-residents’ direct investment in Romania worth EUR 425 million1 (as compared with EUR 444 million in the first quarter of 2011) covered 78.1 percent of the curent account deficit in January - March 2012. Out of the total figure, equity stakes consolidated with the estimated net loss amounted to EUR 396 million and intra-group loans2 posted EUR 29 million.

Medium- and long-term external debt at end-March 2012 stood at EUR 76,443 million (77.4 percent of total external debt), 1.1 percent above the level recorded at end-2011.

Short-term external debt at end-March 2012 totalled EUR 22,269 million (22.6 percent of total external debt), down 2.4 percent from end-2011.

Romania's external debt at end-March 2012*
and external debt service in January - March 2012
- EUR million -
 External debtExternal debt service
January - March 2012p
End-2011rEnd-March 2012p
I. Medium- and long-term external debt 75,597 76,443 2,820
I.1. Direct public debta) o/w: 19,571 20,895 536
I.1.1. IMF borrowings 2,310 2,260 15
I.2. Publicly guaranteed debtb) 1,509 1,455 56
I.3. Non-publicly guaranteed debt 35,796 36,151 1,217
I.4. Medium- and long-term deposits of non-residents 8,490 7,931 945e
I.5. IMF borrowingsc) 10,231 10,011 66
II. Short-term external debt 22,828 22,269 9,074e
Total external debt (I+II) 98,425  98,712 11,894

*) 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 government in compliance with the legislation on public debt, including Government Emergency Ordinance No. 99/2009 ratifying the Stand-by Arrangement between Romania and the IMF;
b) external loans guaranteed by the Ministry of Public Finance and local 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 No. 99/2009 (item I.1.1. in the above table).
e - estimates     p - provisional data     r - revised data     

Medium- and long-term external debt service ratio3 ran at 22.3 percent in January - March 2012, against 28.3 percent in 2011. At end-March 2012, goods and services import cover4 stood at 8.4 months, as compared to 7.5 months at end-2011.

Notes:

  1. Estimates.
  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.
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