Comunicat de presă


Balance of payments and external debt, May 2014

14.07.2014

In January - May 2014p, the balance-of-payments current account posted a deficit of EUR 351 million as compared with a surplus of EUR 191 million in the same year-ago period, mainly amid the increase in income deficit (by EUR 1,002 million).

- EUR million -
  January - May 2013p January - May 2014p
CREDIT DEBIT NET CREDIT DEBIT NET
CURRENT ACCOUNT (A+B+C) 27,062 26,871 191 29,544 29,895 -351
A. Goods and services 23,722 23,908 -186 25,954 25,749 205
a. Goods (exports fob – imports fob)* 19,692 20,958 -1,266 21,275 22,589 -1,314
b. Services 4,030 2,950 1,080 4,679 3,160 1,519
- transport 1,456 507 949 1,644 531 1,113
- tourism-travel 376 537 -161 477 574 -97
- other 2,198 1,906 292 2,558 2,055 503
B. Income 426 1,708 -1,282 427 2,711 -2,284
C. Current transfers 2,914 1,255 1,659 3,163 1,435 1,728

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 1,091 million (up 13.9 percent as compared with January – May 2013), of which equity stakes (including reinvested earnings) amounted to EUR 910 million and intragroup loans to EUR 181 million.

Medium- and long-term external debt at end-May 2014 stood at EUR 76,115 million (80.9 percent of total external debt), down 1 percent from end-2013.

Short-term external debt at end-May 2014 totalled EUR 17,949 million (19.1 percent of total external debt), down 6.3 percent from end-2013.

1 Estimates.

Romania's external debt at end-May 2014*
and external debt service in January - May 2014
- EUR million -
  External debt External debt service
January - May 2014p
End-2013p End-May 2014p
I. Medium- and long-term external debt 76,894 76,115 9,225
I.1. Direct public debta) o/w: 28,347 29,682 3,120
I.1.1. IMF borrowings 1,121 705 439
I.2. Publicly guaranteed debtb) 1,229 1,184 48
I.3. Non-publicly guaranteed debt 36,157 36,051 3,243
I.4. Medium- and long-term deposits of non-residents 6,453 6,536 679e
I.5. IMF borrowingsc) 4,708 2,662 2,135
II. Short-term external debt 19,166 17,949 13,223e
Total external debt (I+II) 96,060 94,064 22,448

*) 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 35.5 percent in the first five months of 2014 against 41.9 percent in 2013. At end-May 2014, goods and services import cover stood at 6.6 months, as compared to 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.