Comunicat de presă


Balance of payments and external debt, January 2014

17.03.2014

In January 2014p, the balance-of-payments current account posted a surplus of EUR 388 million as compared with EUR 267 million in January 2013, due to the decrease in trade deficit (by EUR 58 million), as well as the increase in services surplus (by EUR 54 million) and current transfers surplus (by EUR 14 million).

- EUR million -
  January 2013p January 2014p
CREDIT DEBIT NET CREDIT DEBIT NET
CURRENT ACCOUNT (A+B+C) 5,324 5,057 267 5,628 5,240 388
A. Goods and services 4,427 4,425 2 4,672 4,558 114
a. Goods (exports fob – imports fob)* 3,702 3,836 -134 3,937 4,013 -76
b. Services 725 589 136 735 545 190
- transport 257 88 169 253 84 169
- tourism-travel 91 112 -21 81 112 -31
- other 377 389 -12 401 349 52
B. Income 87 373 -286 99 390 -291
C. Current transfers 810 259 551 857 292 565

p provisional data
* 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 Romania1 totalled EUR 244 million (up 8 percent as compared with January 2013), of which equity stakes consolidated with the estimated net loss amounted to EUR 119 million and intragroup loans to EUR 125 million.

Medium- and long-term external debt at end-January 2014 stood at EUR 78,354 million (81.1 percent of total external debt), up 1.8 percent from end-2013.

Short-term external debt at end-January 2014 totalled EUR 18,291 million (18.9 percent of total external debt), down 6.2 percent from end-2013.

1 Estimates.

Romania's external debt at end-January 2014*
and external debt service in January 2014
- EUR million -
  External debt External debt service
January 2014p
End-2013p End-January 2014p
I. Medium- and long-term external debt 76,951 78,354 1,302
I.1. Direct public debta) o/w: 28,353 29,509 509
I.1.1. IMF borrowings 1,121 1,135 0
I.2. Publicly guaranteed debtb) 1,218 1,195 19
I.3. Non-publicly guaranteed debt 36,219 36,494 509
I.4. Medium- and long-term deposits of non-residents 6,453 6,499 157e
I.5. IMF borrowingsc) 4,708 4,657 108
II. Short-term external debt 19,491 18,291 3,270e
Total external debt (I+II) 96,442 96,645 4,572

*) 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 table above).
e - estimates     p - provisional data

Medium- and long-term external debt service ratio ran at 27.9 percent in January 2014 against 41.4 percent in 2013. At end-January 2014, goods and services import cover stood at 7.9 months as compared with 7 months at end-2013.

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.