Comunicat de presă


Balance of Payments in January-September 2008

12.11.2008

In January-September 2008, the balance-of-payments current account posted a deficit of EUR 12,704 million, 14.8 percent higher compared to January-September 2007, due largely to the wider trade deficit (EUR 13,661 million), up 11.7 percent from the same period of last year. Export growth outpaced import growth January through September 2008 by 2.4 percentage points.

                                                                                                                                  - EUR million -
  January - September 2007* January - September 2008**
CREDIT DEBIT NET CREDIT DEBIT NET
CURRENT ACCOUNT (A+B+C) 33,946 45,017  -11,071  40,317   53,021 -12,704
A. Goods and services 26,746 38,446  -11,700  31,932   45,196 -13,264
a. Goods (exports fob - imports fob)*** 21,630 33,857  -12,227  25,581   39,242 -13,661
b. Services   5,116  4,589       527    6,351    5,954    397
- transport   1,432  1,714      -282    2,009    2,001       8
- tourism - travel      869    812        57    1,032    1,348   -316
- other   2,815  2,063      752    3,310    2,605    705
B. Incomes   1,846  4,950  -3,104    1,696    5,845 -4,149
C. Current transfers   5,354  1,621   3,733    6,689   1,980  4,709
* revised data
** provisional data
*** Source: National Institute of Statistics; imports fob are calculated based on CIF/FOB conversion coefficient of 1.0834 set by the NIS.

Foreign direct investment worth EUR 7,194 million covered 56.6 percent of the current account deficit in January-September 2008. Equity stakes and reinvested earnings accounted for 52.7 percent of the total figure, with intra-group loans 1 making up 47.3 percent.

Medium- and long-term external debt2 at end-September 2008 added 25.2 percent against end-2007 to EUR 48,102 million.

Public and publicly guaranteed external debt at end-September 2008 totalled EUR 10,626 million, accounting for 22.1 percent of medium- and long-term external debt, compared with 26.5 percent at end-2007.

Non-publicly guaranteed external debt came in at EUR 31,501 million at end-September 2008, rising 25.9 percent from year-end 2007.

Romania's medium- and long-term external debt at end-September 2008* and external debt service in January - September 2008

                                                                                                                                                                                   - EUR million -
  Medium- and long-term external debt External debt service January - September 2008p
Balance at end-2007r Balance at end-September 2008p
1. DIRECT PUBLIC DEBTa) 8,180 8,816 1,501
2. PUBLICLY GUARANTEED DEBTb),
of which:
2,017 1,810 330
- public sectorc) 1,966 1,774 315
- private sectord) 51 36 15
3. Non-publicly guaranteed debt 25,014 31,501 5,335
4. External debt (1+2+3) 35,211 42,127 7,166
5. Medium- and long-term deposits of non-residents 3,219 5,975 889e
Total external debt (4+5) 38,430 48,102 8,055

*) The balance of medium- and long-term external debt is cash-based (not including unmatured accrued interest).
a) external loans taken directly by the Ministry of Economy and Finance/local general government in compliance with the legislation on public debt
b) external loans guaranteed by the Ministry of Economy and Finance/local general government in compliance with the legislation on public debt
c) financial and non-financial corporations with majority state-owned capital
d) financial and non-financial corporations with majority private capital
r - revised data
p - provisional data
e - estimates

goods and services import cover4 stood at 5.6 months versus 6.1 months at year-end 2007.


Notes:

  1. Loans between the foreign investor and the resident firm.
  2. External debt balance is subject to monthly revision.
  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.