Press release


Balance of payments and external debt, June 2013

12.08.2013

In January – June 2013p, the balance-of-payments current account posted a surplus of EUR 695 million as compared with a deficit of EUR 2,781 million in the first half of 2012, due to the decrease in trade and income deficits (by EUR 2,027 million and EUR 356 million respectively) and to services going into surplus (EUR 1,156 million1, from a deficit of EUR 21 million).

- EUR million -
  January - June 2012p January - June 2013p
CREDIT DEBIT NET CREDIT DEBIT NET
CURRENT ACCOUNT (A+B+C) 29,847 32,628 -2,781 32,319 31,624 695
A. Goods and services 25,939 29,458 -3,519 28,412 28,727 -315
a. Goods (exports fob – imports fob)* 22,386 25,884 -3,498 23,709 25,180 -1,471
b. Services 3,553 3,574 -21 4,703 3,547 1,156
- transport 1,022 653 369 1,619 619 1,000
- tourism-travel 518 628 -110 534 732 -198
- other 2,013 2,293 -280 2,550 2,196 354
B. Incomes 654 1,914 -1,260 513 1,417 -904
C. Current transfers 3,254 1,256 1,998 3,394 1,480 1,914

p provisional data
1 Data for 2013 H1 have been revised to incorporate the results of the first quarterly Survey on International Trade in Services (see Methodological Notes).
* Source: National Institute of Statistics (NIS) – International Trade of Goods. Imports FOB are calculated by the NBR based on the CIF/FOB conversion factor of 1.0430 set by the NIS.

Non-residents’ direct investment in Romania (estimates) totalled EUR 666 million (as compared with EUR 826 million in January-June 2012), of which intragroup loans amounted to EUR 570 million and equity stakes consolidated with the estimated net loss to EUR 96 million.

Medium- and long-term external debt at end-June 2013 stood at EUR 78,918 million (79.8 percent of total external debt), 0.3 percent above the level recorded at end-2012.

Short-term external debt at end-June 2013 totalled EUR 19,917 million (20.2 percent of total external debt), down 1.6 percent from end-2012.

Romania's external debt at end-June 2013*
and external debt service in January - June 2013
- EUR million -
  External debt External debt service
January - June 2013p
End-2012p End-June 2013p
I. Medium- and long-term external debt 78,717 78,918 10,365
I.1. Direct public debta) o/w: 23,696 27,120 2,142
I.1.1. IMF borrowings 2,144 1,714 437
I.2. Publicly guaranteed debtb) 1,426 1,338 95
I.3. Non-publicly guaranteed debt 37,130 36,829 4,527
I.4. Medium- and long-term deposits of non-residents 7,810 6,745 1,823e
I.5. IMF borrowingsc) 8,655 6,886 1,778
II. Short-term external debt 20,251 19,917 13,979e
Total external debt (I+II) 98,968  98,835 24,344

*) 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 governments 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 governments in compliance with the legislation on public debt;
c) loans 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

Medium- and long-term external debt service ratio ran at 36.5 percent in the first half of 2013, against 33.5 percent in 2012. At end-June 2013, goods and services import cover stood at 7.4 months, as compared with 7.1 months at end-2012.



Methodological Notes

  1. According to the European and international statistical standards, starting with 2013, the National Bank of Romania, in co-operation with the National Institute of Statistics, has implemented a quarterly Survey on International Trade in Services, with the aim at directly collecting statistical data regarding international trade in services from resident reporting entities (institutions, enterprises, organisations, NGOs, associations etc.) that sell/buy international services to/from non-residents.
    The data resulted from the Survey are used to revise the quarterly balance of services included in the balance-of-payments current account, which is compiled quarterly on the basis of the data on the international transactions reported by the credit institutions on own behalf, as well as on behalf of their clients.
  2. External debt service ratio is calculated as a ratio of medium- and long-term external debt service to exports of goods and services.
  3. Import cover is calculated as a ratio of the international reserves (foreign exchange + gold) at end of period to average monthly imports of goods and services for the period under review.
  4. Balance of payments data are updated on a monthly basis; updates are available in the Interactive database.