Comunicat de presă


Balance of payments and external debt, April 2011

14.06.2011

In January-April 2011 the balance-of-payments current account posted a deficit of EUR 1,152 million, 46.4 percent lower than in the same year-ago period, due to the decrease in trade deficit by 41.3 percent and the increase in current transfers surplus by 89.8 percent (on the back of net transfers received by the general government).

- EUR million -
  January-April 2010r January-April 2011p
CREDIT DEBIT NET CREDIT DEBIT NET
CURRENT ACCOUNT (A+B+C) 14,531 16,680  -2,149 18,716 19,868 -1,152
A. Goods and services 12,666 14,866 -2,200 16,452 17,925  -1,473
a. Goods (exports fob – imports fob)s 10,798 12,679 -1,881 14,392 15,497 -1,105
b. Services 1,868 2,187 -319 2,060 2,428  -368
- transport 549 618 -69 606 789 -183
- tourism-travel 238 335  -97 287 377 -90
- other 1,081 1,234 -153 1,167  1,262  -95
B. Incomes 299 826 -527 332 1,108 -776
C. Current transfers 1,566  988 578  1,932 835  1,097

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 444 million1 (as compared to EUR 623 million in January-April 2010) covered 38.5 percent of the current account deficit in the first four months of 2011. Out of the total figure, intra-group loans2 amounted to EUR 324 million and equity stakes consolidated with estimated net loss to EUR 120 million.

Medium- and long-term external debt at end-April 2011 stood at EUR 73,723 million (79.3 percent of total external debt), 1.7 percent above the level recorded at end-2010.

Short-term external debt at end-April 2011 totalled EUR 19,300 million (20.7 percent of total external debt), up 4.7 percent from end-2010.

Romania's external debt at end-April 2011*
and external debt service in January-April 2011
- EUR million -
  External debt External debt service
January-April 2011p
End-2010r End-April 2011p
I. Medium- and long-term external debt 72,471 73,723 3,154
I.1. Direct public debta) 16,022 16,989 487
I.2. Publicly guaranteed debtb) 1,708 1,615 70
I.3. Non-publicly guaranteed debt 37,431 37,078 2,344
I.4. Medium- and long-term deposits of non-residents 8,227 8,601 190e
I.5. IMF borrowingsc) 9,083 9,440 63
II. Short-term external debt 18,437 19,300 8,182e
Total external debt (I+II) 90,908 93,023 11,336

*) 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 19.2 percent in January-April 2011, against 33.3 percent in 2010. At end-April 2011, goods and services import cover4 stood at 7.9 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.