Comunicat de presă


Balance of payments and external debt, March 2014

15.05.2014

In January - March 2014p, the balance-of-payments current account posted a deficit of EUR 261 million as compared with a surplus of EUR 6 million in the same year-ago period, amid the increase in income deficit (by EUR 717 million).

- EUR million -
  January - March 2013p January - March 2014p
CREDIT DEBIT NET CREDIT DEBIT NET
CURRENT ACCOUNT (A+B+C) 15,740 15,734 6 17,263 17,524 -261
A. Goods and services 13,877 13,845 32 14,988 14,790 198
a. Goods (exports fob – imports fob)* 11,582 12,136 -554 12,754 13,300 -546
b. Services 2,295 1,709 586 2,234 1,490 744
- transport 820 278 542 789 231 558
- tourism-travel 212 304 -92 228 329 -101
- other 1,263 1,127 136 1,217 930 287
B. Income 233 1,064 -831 245 1,793 -1,548
C. Current transfers 1,630 825 805 2,030 941 1,089

p provisional data
* 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 Romania1 totalled EUR 570 million (up 30.1 percent as compared with January – March 2013), of which equity stakes (including reinvested earnings) amounted to EUR 514 million and intragroup loans to EUR 56 million.

Medium- and long-term external debt at end-March 2014 stood at EUR 75,308 million (80.8 percent of total external debt), down 2.1 percent from end-2013.

Short-term external debt at end-March 2014 totalled EUR 17,930 million (19.2 percent of total external debt), down 6.4 percent from end-2013.

1 Estimates.

Romania's external debt at end-March 2014*
and external debt service in January - March 2014
- EUR million -
  External debt External debt service
January - March 2014p
End-2013p End-March 2014p
I. Medium- and long-term external debt 76,894 75,308 5,172
I.1. Direct public debta) o/w: 28,347 28,222 1,623
I.1.1. IMF borrowings 1,121 850 281
I.2. Publicly guaranteed debtb) 1,229 1,187 39
I.3. Non-publicly guaranteed debt 36,157 35,778 1,932
I.4. Medium- and long-term deposits of non-residents 6,453 6,506 441e
I.5. IMF borrowingsc) 4,708 3,615 1,137
II. Short-term external debt 19,166 17,930 9,138e
Total external debt (I+II) 96,060 93,238 14,310

*) 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 table above).
e - estimates     p - provisional data

Medium- and long-term external debt service ratio ran at 34.5 percent in the first three months of 2014 against 41.9 percent in 2013. At end-March 2014, goods and services import cover stood at 7 months, the same level as at end-2013.

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.