Comunicat de presă


Balance of Payments and External Debt - December 2009

12.02.2010

In 2009, the balance-of-payments current account posted a deficit of EUR 5,054 million, 68.7 percent lower than in 2008, due largely to the narrower trade deficit (EUR 6,754 million, down 64.7 percent year on year).

- EUR million -
  2008* 2009**
CREDIT DEBIT NET CREDIT DEBIT NET
CURRENT ACCOUNT (A+B+C) 53,582 69,739 -16,157 43,833 48,887 -5,054
A. Goods and services 42,479 60,929 -18,450 36,036 43,057 -7,021
a. Goods (exports fob - imports fob)*** 33,725 52,834 -19,109 29,036 35,790 -6,754
b. Services 8,754 8,095 659 7,000 7,267 -267
- transport 2,684 2,697 -13 2,067 1,995 72
- tourism - travel 1,358 1,477 -119 882 1,053 -171
- other 4,712 3,921 791 4,051 4,219 -168
B. Incomes 2,268 5,951 -3,683 1,159 3,290 -2,131
C. Current transfers 8,835 2,859 5,976 6,638 2,540 4,098

  * 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 4,899 million (as compared with EUR 9,496 million in 2008) covered 96.9 percent of the current account deficit in 2009. During 2009, out of the above-mentioned amount, equity stakes (including reinvested earnings) stood at EUR 3,065 million (as compared with EUR 4,873 million in 2008) and intra-group loans1 at EUR 1,834 million (compared with EUR 4,623 million in 2008).

Medium- and long-term external debt at end-2009 added 24.0 percent against end-2008 to EUR 64,208 million (81.6 percent of total external debt).

Short-term external debt at end-2009 totalled EUR 14, 448 million (18.4 percent of total external debt), down 29.8 percent from year-end 2008.

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

- EUR million -
  External debt balance External debt service
2009p
End-2008r End-2009p
I. Medium- and long-term external debt 51,762 64,208 11,391 
I.1. Direct public debta) 9,028 11,975 1,360 
I.2. Publicly guaranteed debtb) 1,721 1,520 345 
I.3. Non-publicly guaranteed debt 35,546 37,785 7,388 
I.4. Medium- and long-term deposits of non-residents 5,467 7,242 2,197e
I.5. IMF borrowingsc) - 5,686 101 
II. Short-term external debt 20,592 14,448 32,697e
Total external debt (I+II) 72,354 78,656 44,088

*) 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 Ministry of Public Finance 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 31.6 percent in 2009, compared to 30.7 percent in 2008. At end-2009, goods and services import cover3 stood at 8.6 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.