Comunicat de presă


Balance of payments and external debt, February 2011

13.04.2011

In January-February 2011 the balance-of-payments current account posted a deficit of EUR 44 million, as compared to EUR 747 million in January-February 2010, due to the decrease in trade deficit and the increase in current transfers surplus.

- EUR million -
  January-February 2010r January-February 2011p
CREDIT DEBIT NET CREDIT DEBIT NET
CURRENT ACCOUNT (A+B+C) 6,737 7,484  -747 9,179 9,223 -44
A. Goods and services 5,680 6,494 -814 7,940 8,115 -175
a. Goods (exports fob – imports fob)s 4,876 5,538 -662 6,918 6,923  -5
b. Services 804 956 -152 1,022 1,192 -170
- transport 235 269 -34  335 381 -46
- tourism-travel 87 150  -63 131 173 -42
- other 482 537  -55 556  638  -82
B. Incomes 140 406 -266 168 571 -403
C. Current transfers 917 584  333 1,071 537 534

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 294 million1 (as compared with EUR 140 million in January-February 2010) covered entirely the current account deficit in the first two months of 2011. Out of the total figure, intra-group loans2 amounted to EUR 267 million and equity stakes consolidated with estimated net loss to EUR 27 million.

Medium- and long-term external debt at end-February 2011 stood at EUR 72,862 million (79.4 percent of total external debt), 1.1 percent above the level recorded at end-2010.

Short-term external debt at end-February 2011 totalled EUR 18,932 million (20.6 percent of total external debt), up 1.1 percent from end-2010.

Romania's external debt at end-February 2011*
and external debt service in January-February 2011
- EUR million -
  External debt External debt service
January-February 2011p
End-2010r End-February 2011p
I. Medium- and long-term external debt 72,084 72,862 1,414
I.1. Direct public debta) 15,800 15,702 211
I.2. Publicly guaranteed debtb) 1,711 1,664 40
I.3. Non-publicly guaranteed debt 37,263 37,253 1,035
I.4. Medium- and long-term deposits of non-residents 8,227 8,409 65e
I.5. IMF borrowingsc) 9,083 9,834 63
II. Short-term external debt 18,731 18,932 2,160e
Total external debt (I+II) 90,815 91,794 3,574

*) 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 ratio3 ran at 17.8 percent in January-February 2011, as compared to 33.3 percent in 2010. At end-February 2011, goods and services import cover4 stood at 8.7 months, as compared to 8.6 months at end-2010.


Notes:

  1. Estimated data
  2. Loans between parent company and its resident branch.
  3. External debt service ratio is computed as a ratio of medium- and long-term external debt service to exports of goods and services.
  4. 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.