Comunicat de presă


Balance of Payments and External Debt - October 2009

11.12.2009

In January-October 2009, the balance-of-payments current account posted a deficit of EUR 3,954 million, 72.2 percent lower than in the same period of 2008, due largely to the narrower trade deficit (EUR 5,414 million, down 66.9 percent year on year).

- EUR million -
  January-October 2008* January-October 2009**
CREDIT DEBIT NET CREDIT DEBIT NET
CURRENT ACCOUNT (A+B+C) 45,720 59,925 -14,205 36,023 39,977 -3,954
A. Goods and services 36,413 52,367 -15,954 29,575 35,223 -5,648
a. Goods (exports fob - imports fob)*** 29,199 45,567 -16,368 23,905 29,319 -5,414
b. Services 7,214 6,800 414 5,670 5,904 -234
- transport 2,228 2,325 -97 1,653 1,630 23
- tourism - travel 1,164 1,269 -105 780 856 -76
- other 3,822 3,206 617 3,237 3,418 -181
B. Incomes 1,879 5,188 -3,309 968 2,738 -1,770
C. Current transfers 7,428 2,370 5,058 5,480 2,016 3,464

  * revised data
 ** provisional data
*** Source: National Institute of Statistics (NIS); imports FOB are calculated based on CIF/FOB conversion coefficient of 1.0834 set by the NIS.

Non-residents’ direct investment in Romania worth EUR 3,720 million (as compared with EUR 7,667 million over January-October 2008) covered 94.1 percent of the current account deficit in the first ten months of 2009. During January-October 2009, out of the above-mentioned amount, equity stakes (including reinvested earnings) stood at EUR 1,946 million (as compared with EUR 4,480 million over January-October 2008) and intra-group loans1 at EUR 1,774 million (compared with EUR 3,187 million over January-October 2008).

Medium- and long-term external debt at end-Octomber 2009 added 22.3 percent against end-2008 to EUR 62,904 million (80.7 percent of total external debt).

Short-term external debt at end-October 2009 totalled EUR 14,996 million (19.3 percent of total external debt), down 27.2 percent from year-end 2008.

Romania's external debt at end-October 2009* and external debt service in January-October 2009

- EUR million -
  Total external debt balance External debt service
January-October
2009p
End-2008r End-October 2009p
I. Medium- and long-term external debt 51,440 62,904 8,242 
I.1. Direct public debta) 9,010 11,439 1,024 
I.2. Publicly guaranteed debtb) 1,720 1,540 280 
I.3. Non-publicly guaranteed debt 35,243 37,162 5,382 
I.4. Medium- and long-term deposits of non-residents 5,467 7,151 1,482e
I.5. IMF borrowingsc) - 5,612 74 
II. Short-term external debt 20,592 14,996 26,771e
Total external debt (I+II) 72,032 77,900 35,013 

*) 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 general government in compliance with the legislation on public debt, including Government Emergency Ordinance 99/2009 ratifying the Stand-by Arrangement between Romania and the IMF;
b) external loans guaranteed by the Ministry of Public Finance and local general government in compliance with the legislation on public debt;
c) under the Stand-by Arrangement concluded with the IMF, excluding the amount received by the MPF from the IMF according to Government Emergency Ordinance 99/2009.
r - revised data
p - provisional data
e - estimates

Medium- and long-term external debt service ratio2 ran at 27.9 percent in the first ten months of 2009, compared to 31.5 percent in 2008. At end-October 2009, goods and services import cover3 stood at 8.7 months versus 5.6 months at year-end 2008.


Notes:

  1. Loans between the foreign investor and the resident company.
  2. External debt service ratio is computed as a ratio of medium- and long-term external debt service to exports of goods and services.
  3. 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.