Comunicat de presă


Balance of payments and external debt, July 2013

11.09.2013

In January – July 2013p, the balance-of-payments current account posted a surplus of EUR 489 million as compared with a deficit of EUR 3,041 million in the first seven months of 2012, due to the decrease in trade deficit (by EUR 2,221 million) and the increase in services surplus (by EUR 1,460 million1).

- EUR million -
  January - July 2012p January - July 2013p
CREDIT DEBIT NET CREDIT DEBIT NET
CURRENT ACCOUNT (A+B+C) 34,809 37,850 -3,041 38,704 38,215 489
A. Goods and services 30,387 34,425 -4,038 34,118 34,475 -357
a. Goods (exports fob – imports fob)* 26,182 30,238 -4,056 28,194 30,029 -1,835
b. Services 4,205 4,187 18 5,924 4,446 1,478
- transport 1,215 761 454 2,105 755 1,350
- tourism-travel 632 771 -139 688 933 -245
- other 2,358 2,655 -297 3,131 2,758 373
B. Incomes 819 2,015 -1,196 744 2,044 -1,300
C. Current transfers 3,603 1,410 2,193 3,842 1,696 2,146

p provisional data
1 Data for 2013 H1 have been revised to incorporate the results of the first quarterly Survey on International Trade in Services (see Methodological Notes).
* Source: National Institute of Statistics (NIS) – International Trade of Goods. Imports FOB are calculated by the NBR based on the CIF/FOB conversion factor of 1.0430 set by the NIS.

Non-residents’ direct investment in Romania (estimates) totalled EUR 946 million (28.9 percent down as compared with January-July 2012), of which intragroup loans amounted to EUR 646 million and equity stakes consolidated with the estimated net loss to EUR 300 million.

Medium- and long-term external debt at end-July 2013 stood at EUR 78,336 million (79.7 percent of total external debt), 0.5 percent below the level recorded at end-2012.

Short-term external debt at end-July 2013 totalled EUR 19,990 million (20.3 percent of total external debt), down 1.3 percent from end-2012.

Romania's external debt at end-July 2013*
and external debt service in January - July 2013
- EUR million -
  External debt External debt service
January - July 2013p
End-2012p End-July 2013p
I. Medium- and long-term external debt 78,717 78,336 12,068
I.1. Direct public debta) o/w: 23,696 27,393 2,265
I.1.1. IMF borrowings 2,144 1,698 437
I.2. Publicly guaranteed debtb) 1,426 1,307 124
I.3. Non-publicly guaranteed debt 37,130 36,133 5,647
I.4. Medium- and long-term deposits of non-residents 7,810 6,684 2,254e
I.5. IMF borrowingsc) 8,655 6,819 1,778
II. Short-term external debt 20,251 19,990 17,183e
Total external debt (I+II) 98,968  98,326 29,251

*) 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 governments 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 governments in compliance with the legislation on public debt;
c) loans 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

Medium- and long-term external debt service ratio ran at 35.4 percent in the first seven months of 2013, against 33.5 percent in 2012. At end-July 2013, goods and services import cover stood at 7.5 months, as compared with 7.1 months at end-2012.



Methodological Notes

  1. According to the European and international statistical standards, starting with 2013, the National Bank of Romania, in co-operation with the National Institute of Statistics, has implemented a quarterly Survey on International Trade in Services, with the aim at directly collecting statistical data regarding international trade in services from resident reporting entities (institutions, enterprises, organisations, NGOs, associations etc.) that sell/buy international services to/from non-residents.
    The data resulted from the Survey are used to revise the quarterly balance of services included in the balance-of-payments current account, which is compiled quarterly on the basis of the data on the international transactions reported by the credit institutions on own behalf, as well as on behalf of their clients.
  2. External debt service ratio is calculated as a ratio of medium- and long-term external debt service to exports of goods and services.
  3. Import cover is calculated as a ratio of the international reserves (foreign exchange + gold) at end of period to average monthly imports of goods and services for the period under review.
  4. Balance of payments data are updated on a monthly basis; updates are available in the Interactive database.