Comunicat de presă


Balance of payments and external debt, September 2012

12.11.2012

In January - September 2012p, the balance-of-payments current account posted a deficit of EUR 3,671 million, 23.2 percent lower from the same year-ago period, due to the decrease in the income deficit (by EUR 624 million) as well as to the increase in the current transfers surplus (EUR 381 million) and in the services surplus (EUR 320 million).

- EUR million -
  January - September 2011r January - September 2012p
CREDIT DEBIT NET CREDIT DEBIT NET
CURRENT ACCOUNT (A+B+C) 43,643 48,423 -4,780 44,380 48,051 -3,671
A. Goods and services 38,843 44,017 -5,174 39,057 44,127 -5,070
a. Goods (exports fob – imports fob)s 33,677 38,902 -5,225 33,506 38,947 -5,441
b. Services 5,166 5,115 51 5,551 5,180 371
- transport 1,562 994 568 1,626 976 650
- tourism-travel 764 1,069 -305 842 1,074 -232
- other 2,840 3,052 -212 3,083 3,130 -47
B. Incomes 885 2,687 -1,802 999 2,177 -1,178
C. Current transfers 3,915 1,719 2,196 4,324 1,747 2,577

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 Starting January 2012, the CIF/FOB conversion factor of 1.0834 has been replaced by the new factor of 1.0430.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 1,109 million1 (as compared with EUR 861 million in January - September 2011) covered 30.2 percent of the curent account deficit in the first nine months of 2012. Out of the total figure, equity stakes consolidated with the estimated net loss amounted to EUR 556 million and intra-group loans2 to EUR 553 million.

Medium- and long-term external debt at end-September 2012 stood at EUR 77,506 million (78.2 percent of total external debt), 2.1 percent above the level recorded at end-2011.

Short-term external debt at end-September 2012 totalled EUR 21,571 million (21.8 percent of total external debt), down 5.4 percent from end-2011.

Romania's external debt at end-September 2012*
and external debt service in January - September 2012
- EUR million -
  External debt External debt service
January - September 2012p
End-2011r End-September 2012p
I. Medium- and long-term external debt 75,929 77,506 11,441
I.1. Direct public debta) o/w: 19,615 21,503 2,501
I.1.1. IMF borrowings 2,310 2,321 45
I.2. Publicly guaranteed debtb) 1,466 1,373 151
I.3. Non-publicly guaranteed debt 36,127 37,351 5,056
I.4. Medium- and long-term deposits of non-residents 8,490 7,649 2,868e
I.5. IMF borrowingsc) 10,231 9,630 865
II. Short-term external debt 22,795 21,571 24,849e
Total external debt (I+II) 98,724  99,077 36,290

*) 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 29.3 percent in January - September 2012, against 28.9 percent in 2011. At end-September 2012, goods and services import cover4 stood at 7.5 months, remaining flat as compared to 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.

Balance of payments data are updated on a monthly basis; updates are available in the Interactive database.