Comunicat de presă


Balance of payments and external debt, September 2013

12.11.2013

In January – September 2013p, the balance-of-payments current account posted a deficit of EUR 595 million as compared with a deficit of EUR 4,800 million in the first nine months of 2012, due to the decrease in trade deficit (by EUR 3,057 million), as well as the increase in services surplus (by EUR 1,492 million1).

- EUR million -
  January - September 2012s January - September 2013p
CREDIT DEBIT NET CREDIT DEBIT NET
CURRENT ACCOUNT (A+B+C) 44,883 49,683 -4,800 49,506 50,101 -595
A. Goods and services 39,482 44,387 -4,905 43,994 44,350 -356
a. Goods (exports fob – imports fob)* 33,521 39,060 -5,539 36,480 38,962 -2,482
b. Services 5,961 5,327 634 7,514 5,388 2,126
- transport 1,819 981 838 2,630 947 1,683
- tourism-travel 852 1,072 -220 923 1,143 -220
- other 3,290 3,274 16 3,961 3,298 663
B. Incomes 1,050 3,500 -2,450 911 3,633 -2,722
C. Current transfers 4,351 1,796 2,555 4,601 2,118 2,483

p provisional data, ssemifinal data
1 Data for 2013 H1 have been compiled to incorporate the results of the quarterly Surveys 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 Romania2 totalled EUR 1,497 million (down 9.9 percent as compared with January - September 20123), of which equity stakes consolidated with the estimated net loss amounted to EUR 1,005 million and intragroup loans to EUR 492 million.

Medium- and long-term external debt at end-September 2013 stood at EUR 79,143 million (80.3 percent of total external debt), 0.5 percent above the level recorded at end-2012.

Short-term external debt at end-September 2013 totalled EUR 19,380 million (19.7 percent of total external debt), down 7.4 percent from end-2012.

2 Estimates
3 Revised data according to the results of the Survey on Foreign Direct Investment in 2012.

Romania's external debt at end-September 2013*
and external debt service in January - September 2013
- EUR million -
  External debt External debt service
January - September 2013p
End-2012p End-September 2013p
I. Medium- and long-term external debt 78,760 79,143 17,892
I.1. Direct public debta) o/w: 23,755 28,558 4,102
I.1.1. IMF borrowings 2,144 1,415 727
I.2. Publicly guaranteed debtb) 1,424 1,276 156
I.3. Non-publicly guaranteed debt 37,182 36,749 8,326
I.4. Medium- and long-term deposits of non-residents 7,745 6,662 2,580e
I.5. IMF borrowingsc) 8,654 5,898 2,728
II. Short-term external debt 20,921 19,380 22,996e
Total external debt (I+II) 99,681 98,523 40,888

*) 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 40.7 percent in the first nine months of 2013, against 34.9 percent in 2012. At end-September 2013, goods and services import cover stood at 7.4 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.