Comunicat de presă


Balance of Payments in January - May 2001

25.07.2001

At the end of May 2001, the current account rang up a deficit of USD 1,197 million compared with USD 538 million in the same year-ago period. This was the result of the following: (i) the 197 per cent widening of the trade deficit; (ii) the 40 per cent reduction in the deficit under services; (iii) the 23 per cent narrowing of the deficit under incomes; and (iv) the 10.7 per cent increase in the surplus under current transfers.

- USD million -
  January - May 2000 January - May 2001
CREDIT DEBIT BALANCE CREDIT DEBIT BALANCE
CURRENT ACCOUNT (A+B+C) 5,053 5,591 -538 5,981 7,178 -1,197
A. Goods and Services 4,570 5,267 -697 5,352 6,775 -1,423
  a. Goods (exports fob - imports fob) 3,984 4,408 -424 4,678 5,937 -1,259
  b. Services 586 859 -273 674 838 -164
        - Transport 235 251 -16 268 311 -43
        - Tourism 112 155 -43 90 149 -59
        - Others 239 453 -214 316 378 -62
B. Incomes 97 245 -148 171 285 -114
C. Current transfers 386 79 307 458 118 340

Romania's external debt increased by USD 100 million in the first five months of this year to reach USD 10,402 million at end-May 2001. Medium- and long-term external debt edged 1.1 per cent higher to USD 10,048 million, whilst short-term debt lowered 2 per cent to USD 354 million.

Public and publicly guaranteed debt as of end-May 2001 added up to USD 6,976 million, accounting for 69.4 per cent of the medium- and long-term debt versus 69.3 per cent at year-end 2000. During the same period, private debt remained broadly unchanged at USD 2,297 million.

Debt service ratio (computed as a ratio between external debt service and exports of goods and services) ran at 15.7 per cent as of end-May 2001 compared with 19.8 per cent at end-2000.