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Balance of Payments and External Debt - February 2010

13.04.2010

In January-February 2010, the balance-of-payments current account posted a deficit of EUR 754 million, 64.3 percent higher than in the same period of 2009, due largely to the 68.5 percent decrease year on year in current transfers surplus.

- EUR million -
  January-February 2009r January-February 2010p
CREDIT DEBIT NET CREDIT DEBIT NET
CURRENT ACCOUNT (A+B+C) 6,813 7,272 -459 6,739 7,493 -754
A. Goods and services 5,110 6,235 -1,125 5,726 6,436 -710
a. Goods (exports fob - imports fob)s 4,010 5,138 -1,128 4,883 5,455 -572
b. Services 1,100 1,097 3 843 981 -138
- transport 310 285 25 282 271 11
- tourism - travel 119 139 -20 68 144 -76
- other 671 673 -2 493 566 -73
B. Incomes 213 536 -323 139 495 -356
C. Current transfers 1,490 501 989 874 562 312

r  - revised data
p - provisional data
s  - 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 466 million (as compared with EUR 1,326 million over January-February 2009) covered 61.8 percent of the current account deficit in the first two months of 2010. The whole amount consisted in equity stakes.

Medium- and long-term external debt at end-February 2010 stood at EUR 67,737 million (82.3 percent of total external debt), 3.5 percent above the level recorded at end-2009.

Short-term external debt at end-February 2010 totalled EUR 14,611 million (17.7 percent of total external debt), comparable with year-end 2009.

Romania's external debt at end-February 2010*
and external debt service in January-February 2010
- EUR million -
  External debt balance External debt service
January-February 2010p
End-2009p End-February 2010p
I. Medium- and long-term external debt 65,465 67,737 2,313 
I.1. Direct public debta) 11,969 13,334 148 
I.2. Publicly guaranteed debtb) 1,520 1,527 33 
I.3. Non-publicly guaranteed debt 39,048 38,480 1,809 
I.4. Medium- and long-term deposits of non-residents 7,242 7,234 307e
I.5. IMF borrowingsc) 5,686 7,162 16 
II. Short-term external debt 14,596 14,611 4,179e
Total external debt (I+II) 80,061 82,348 6,492 

*) 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

Medium- and long-term external debt service ratio1 ran at 40.4 percent in the first two months of 2010, compared with 33.1 percent in 2009. At end-February 2010, goods and services import cover2 stood at 10.1 months versus 8.6 months at year-end 2009.

Notes:

  1. External debt service ratio is computed as a ratio of medium- and long-term external debt service to exports of goods and services.
  2. 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.
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