Comunicat de presă


Balance of Payments in January-July 2008

12.09.2008

In January-July, the balance-of-payments current account posted a deficit of EUR 9,401 million, due largely to the wider trade deficit (EUR 10,190 million), up 9.3 percent from the same period of last year. Exports growth outpaced imports growth January through July 2008 by 3.3 percentage points.

                                                                                                                                       - EUR million -
  January - July 2007* January - July 2008**
CREDIT DEBIT NET CREDIT DEBIT NET
CURRENT ACCOUNT (A+B+C)   26,909   35,309   -8,400   31,147 40,548 -9,401
A. Goods and services   21,204   30,147   -8,943   25,188 34,730 -9,542
a. Goods (exports fob - imports fob)***   16,824   26,147   -9,323   19,937 30,127 -10,190
b. Services     4,380    4,000       380     5,251    4,603     648
- transport     1,137    1,321      -184     1,717    1,550     167
- tourism - travel       579      582         -3       799       891     -92
- other     2,664    2,097       567     2,735    2,162    573
B. Incomes     1,483    4,018   -2,535     1,332    4,300  -2,968
C. Current transfers     4,222    1,144    3,078     4,627    1,518   3,109
* revised data
** provisional data
*** Source: National Institute of Statistics; imports fob are calculated based on CIF/FOB conversion coefficient of 1.0834 set by the NIS.

Foreign direct investment worth EUR 5,769 million covered 61.4 percent of the current account deficit in January-July 2008. Equity stakes and reinvested earnings accounted for 55 percent of the total figure, with intra-group loans 1 making up 45 percent.

Medium- and long-term external debt2 at end-July 2008 added 17.8 percent against end-2007 to EUR 45,364 million.

Public and publicly guaranteed external debt at end-Jujy 2008 totalled EUR 10,434 million, accounting for 23.0 percent of medium- and long-term external debt, compared with 26.6 percent at end-2007.

Non-publicly guaranteed external debt came in at EUR 29,128 million at end-July 2008, rising 16.4 percent from year-end 2007.

Romania's medium- and long-term external debt at end-July 2008* and external debt service in January - July 2008

                                                                                                                                                                           - EUR million -
  Medium- and long-term external debt External debt service January - July 2008p
Balance at end-2007r Balance at end-July 2008p
1. DIRECT PUBLIC DEBTa) 8,185 8,554 1,360
2. PUBLICLY GUARANTEED DEBTb),
of which:
2,074 1,880 231
- public sectorc) 1,989 1,806 221
- private sectord) 85 74 10
3. Non-publicly guaranteed debt 25,022 29,128 3,562
4. External debt (1+2+3) 35,281 39,562 5,153
5. Medium- and long-term deposits of non-residents 3,219 5,802 863e
Total external debt (4+5) 38,500 45,364 6,016

*) The balance of medium- and long-term external debt is cash-based (not including unmatured accrued interest).
a) external loans taken directly by the Ministry of Economy and Finance/local general government in compliance with the legislation on public debt
b) external loans guaranteed by the Ministry of Economy and Finance/local general government in compliance with the legislation on public debt
c) financial and non-financial corporations with majority state-owned capital
d) financial and non-financial corporations with majority private capital
r - revised data
p - provisional data
e - estimates

import cover4 stood at 5.5 months versus 6 months at year-end 2007.


Notes:

  1. Loans between the foreign investor and the resident firm.
  2. External debt balance is subject to monthly revision.
  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