Comunicat de presă


Balance of payments and external debt, April 2012

15.06.2012

In January - April 2012p, the balance-of-payments current account posted a deficit of EUR 1,230 million, 23.7 percent lower from the same year-ago period, due to the 24.1 percent increase in the current transfers surplus supported by the services deficit turning into surplus and the 4.6 percent decrease in the income balance deficit.

- EUR million -
  January - April 2011r January - April 2012p
CREDIT DEBIT NET CREDIT DEBIT NET
CURRENT ACCOUNT (A+B+C) 18,754 20,367  -1,613 19,557 20,787 -1,230
A. Goods and services 16,448 18,288 -1,840 16,838 18,605 -1,767
a. Goods (exports fob – imports fob)s 14,443 16,242 -1,799 14,545 16,414 -1,869
b. Services 2,005 2,046 -41 2,293 2,191 102
- transport 618 416 202 649 420 229
- tourism-travel 287 376 -89 315 400 -85
- other 1,100 1,254 -154 1,329 1,371 -42
B. Incomes 341 1,231 -890 409 1,258 -849
C. Current transfers 1,965 848 1,117 2,310 924 1,386

p - provisional data
r  - revised data
s  - Source: National Institute of Statistics (NIS) - International Trade of Goods. Imports FOB are calculated by the NBR based on the CIF/FOB conversion factor set by the NIS. Starting January 2012, the former CIF/FOB conversion factor of 1.0834 will be replaced by the new factor of 1.0430. In order to ensure imports FOB data comparability, the monthly data series for 2011 have been recalculated accordingly.

Non-residents’ direct investment in Romania worth EUR 446 million1 (as compared with EUR 490 million in the January - April 2011) covered 36.3 percent of the curent account deficit in January - April 2012. Out of the total figure, equity stakes consolidated with the estimated net loss amounted to EUR 413 million and intra-group loans2 posted EUR 33 million.

Medium- and long-term external debt at end-April 2012 stood at EUR 77,349 million (78.1 percent of total external debt), 2.3 percent above the level recorded at end-2011.

Short-term external debt at end-April 2012 totalled EUR 21,638 million (21.9 percent of total external debt), down 5.2 percent from end-2011.

Romania's external debt at end-April 2012*
and external debt service in January - April 2012
- EUR million -
  External debt External debt service
January - April 2012p
End-2011r End-April 2012p
I. Medium- and long-term external debt 75,597 77,349 3,781
I.1. Direct public debta) o/w: 19,571 21,170 742
I.1.1. IMF borrowings 2,310 2,282 15
I.2. Publicly guaranteed debtb) 1,509 1,455 63
I.3. Non-publicly guaranteed debt 35,796 36,653 1,824
I.4. Medium- and long-term deposits of non-residents 8,490 7,961 1,086e
I.5. IMF borrowingsc) 10,231 10,110 66
II. Short-term external debt 22,828 21,638 11,633e
Total external debt (I+II) 98,425  98,987 15,414

*) 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 government in compliance with the legislation on public debt, including Government Emergency Ordinance No. 99/2009 ratifying the Stand-by Arrangement between Romania and the IMF;
b) external loans guaranteed by the Ministry of Public Finance and local 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 No. 99/2009 (item I.1.1. in the above table).
e - estimates     p - provisional data     r - revised data     

Medium- and long-term external debt service ratio3 ran at 22.5 percent in January - April 2012, against 28.3 percent in 2011. At end-April 2012, goods and services import cover4 stood at 8.3 months, as compared to 7.5 months at end-2011.


Notes:

  1. Estimates.
  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.