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Balance of payments and external debt, July 2012

11.09.2012

In January - July 2012p, the balance-of-payments current account posted a deficit of EUR 2,436 million, 35.4 percent lower from the same year-ago period, due to developments in the balances of incomes (+EUR 743 million), services (+EUR 314 million) and current transfers (+EUR 310 million).

- EUR million -
  January - July 2011r January - July 2012p
CREDIT DEBIT NET CREDIT DEBIT NET
CURRENT ACCOUNT (A+B+C) 33,755 37,525 -3,770 34,859 37,295 -2,436
A. Goods and services 29,848 33,716 -3,868 30,490 34,077 -3,587
a. Goods (exports fob – imports fob)s 25,865 29,864 -3,999 26,090 30,122 -4,032
b. Services 3,983 3,852 131 4,400 3,955 445
- transport 1,202 759 443 1,338 748 590
- tourism-travel 552 764 -212 628 772 -144
- other 2,229 2,329 -100 2,434 2,435 -1
B. Incomes 654 2,443 -1,789 800 1,846 -1,046
C. Current transfers 3,253 1,366 1,887 3,569 1,372 2,197

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 Starting January 2012, the CIF/FOB conversion factor of 1.0834 has been replaced by the new factor of 1.0430.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 907 million1 (as compared with EUR 963 million in the January - July 2011) covered 37.2 percent of the curent account deficit in the first seven months of 2012. Out of the total figure, equity stakes consolidated with the estimated net loss amounted to EUR 107 million and intra-group loans2 to EUR 800 million.

Medium- and long-term external debt at end-July 2012 stood at EUR 78,189 million (79.6 percent of total external debt), 3.4 percent above the level recorded at end-2011.

Short-term external debt at end-July 2012 totalled EUR 20,051 million (20.4 percent of total external debt), down 12.2 percent from end-2011.

Romania's external debt at end-July 2012*
and external debt service in January - July 2012
- EUR million -
  External debt External debt service
January - July 2012p
End-2011r End-July 2012p
I. Medium- and long-term external debt 75,597 78,189 8,374
I.1. Direct public debta) o/w: 19,571 21,017 2,072
I.1.1. IMF borrowings 2,310 2,392 29
I.2. Publicly guaranteed debtb) 1,509 1,388 121
I.3. Non-publicly guaranteed debt 35,796 37,562 3,868
I.4. Medium- and long-term deposits of non-residents 8,490 7,625 2,183e
I.5. IMF borrowingsc) 10,231 10,597 130
II. Short-term external debt 22,828 20,051 20,672e
Total external debt (I+II) 98,425  98,240 29,046

*) 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 27.5 percent in January - July 2012, against 28.3 percent in 2011. At end-July 2012, goods and services import cover4 stood at 7.5 months, remaining flat as compared to 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.

Balance of payments data are updated on a monthly basis; updates are available in the Interactive database.