Comunicat de presă


Balance of Payments and External Debt - November 2009

15.01.2010

In January-November 2009, the balance-of-payments current account posted a deficit of EUR 4,681 million, 69.4 percent lower than in the same period of 2008, due largely to the narrower trade deficit (EUR 5,973 million, down 66.5 percent year on year).

- EUR million -
  January-November 2008* January-November 2009**
CREDIT DEBIT NET CREDIT DEBIT NET
CURRENT ACCOUNT (A+B+C) 49,758 65,057 -15,299 39,531 44,212 -4,681
A. Goods and services 39,731 57,014 -17,283 32,676 39,013 -6,337
a. Goods (exports fob - imports fob)*** 31,769 49,580 -17,811 26,688 32,661 -5,973
b. Services 7,962 7,434 528 5,988 6,352 -364
- transport 2,469 2,529 -60 1,748 1,806 -58
- tourism - travel 1,255 1,375 -120 829 916 -87
- other 4,238 3,530 708 3,411 3,630 -219
B. Incomes 2,024 5,429 -3,405 1,024 2,962 -1,938
C. Current transfers 8,003 2,614 5,389 5,831 2,237 3,594

  * 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 3,826 million (as compared with EUR 8,642 million over January-November 2008) covered 81.7 percent of the current account deficit in the first eleven months of 2009. During January-November 2009, out of the above-mentioned amount, equity stakes (including reinvested earnings) stood at EUR 2,053 million (as compared with EUR 4,660 million over January-November 2008) and intra-group loans1 at EUR 1,773 million (compared with EUR 3,982 million over January-November 2008).

Medium- and long-term external debt at end-November 2009 added 23.2 percent against end-2008 to EUR 63,366 million (80.7 percent of total external debt).

Short-term external debt at end-November 2009 totalled EUR 15,138 million (19.3 percent of total external debt), down 26.5 percent from year-end 2008.

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

- EUR million -
  External debt balance External debt service
January-November
2009p
End-2008r End-November 2009p
I. Medium- and long-term external debt 51,440 63,366 9,999 
I.1. Direct public debta) 9,010 11,775 1,122 
I.2. Publicly guaranteed debtb) 1,720 1,531 298 
I.3. Non-publicly guaranteed debt 35,243 37,271 6,364 
I.4. Medium- and long-term deposits of non-residents 5,467 7,206 2,114e
I.5. IMF borrowingsc) - 5,583 101 
II. Short-term external debt 20,592 15,138 28,750e
Total external debt (I+II) 72,032 78,504 38,749 

*) 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.
e- estimates
p - provisional data
r - revised data

Medium- and long-term external debt service ratio2 ran at 30.6 percent in the first eleven months of 2009, compared to 30.7 percent in 2008. At end-November 2009, goods and services import cover3 stood at 8.8 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.