Comunicat de presă


Balance of payments and external debt, June 2012

13.08.2012

In January - June 2012p, the balance-of-payments current account posted a deficit of EUR 2,411 million, 29.4 percent lower from the same year-ago period, due to the increase in the current transfers surplus (EUR 224 million) and in the services surplus (EUR 218 million), as well as to the decrease in the income deficit (EUR 525 million) and in the trade deficit (EUR 39 million).

- EUR million -
  January - June 2011r January - June 2012p
CREDIT DEBIT NET CREDIT DEBIT NET
CURRENT ACCOUNT (A+B+C) 28,753 32,170 -3,417 29,822 32,233 -2,411
A. Goods and services 25,342 28,756 -3,414 26,039 29,196 -3,157
a. Goods (exports fob – imports fob)s 22,069 25,568 -3,499 22,300 25,760 -3,460
b. Services 3,273 3,188 85 3,739 3,436 303
- transport 999 650 349 1,099 647 452
- tourism-travel 455 626 -171 513 631 -118
- other 1,819 1,912 -93 2,127 2,158 -31
B. Incomes 545 2,232 -1,687 637 1,799 -1,162
C. Current transfers 2,866 1,182 1,684 3,146 1,238 1,908

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 factor set by the NIS. Starting January 2012, the CIF/FOB conversion factor of 1.0834 has been replaced by the new factor of 1.0430. In order to ensure imports FOB data comparability, the monthly data series for 2011 have been recalculated accordingly.

Non-residents’ direct investment in Romania worth EUR 621 million1 (as compared with EUR 874 million in the January - June 2011) covered 25.8 percent of the curent account deficit in the first half of 2012. Out of the total figure, equity stakes consolidated with the estimated net loss amounted to EUR 280 million and intra-group loans2 to EUR 341 million.

Medium- and long-term external debt at end-June 2012 stood at EUR 77,773 million (78.5 percent of total external debt), 2.9 percent above the level recorded at end-2011.

Short-term external debt at end-June 2012 totalled EUR 21,267 million (21.5 percent of total external debt), down 6.8 percent from end-2011.

Romania's external debt at end-June 2012*
and external debt service in January - June 2012
- EUR million -
  External debt External debt service
January - June 2012p
End-2011r End-June 2012p
I. Medium- and long-term external debt 75,597 77,773 6,965
I.1. Direct public debta) o/w: 19,571 20,853 1,874
I.1.1. IMF borrowings 2,310 2,348 29
I.2. Publicly guaranteed debtb) 1,509 1,407 104
I.3. Non-publicly guaranteed debt 35,796 37,498 3,137
I.4. Medium- and long-term deposits of non-residents 8,490 7,616 1,720e
I.5. IMF borrowingsc) 10,231 10,399 130
II. Short-term external debt 22,828 21,267 17,058e
Total external debt (I+II) 98,425  99,040 24,023

*) 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 26.8 percent in January - June 2012, against 28.3 percent in 2011. At end-June 2012, goods and services import cover4 stood at 7.6 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.