Comunicat de presă


Balance of payments and external debt, June 2014

13.08.2014

In January - June 2014p, the balance-of-payments current account posted a deficit of EUR 878 million compared with a surplus of EUR 123 million in the same year-ago period, mainly amid the EUR 1,279 million increase in the income deficit.

- EUR million -
  January - June 2013p January - June 2014p
CREDIT DEBIT NET CREDIT DEBIT NET
CURRENT ACCOUNT (A+B+C) 32,786 32,663 123 35,329 36,207 -878
A. Goods and services 28,719 28,934 -215 31,277 31,084 193
a. Goods (exports fob – imports fob)* 23,716 25,168 -1,452 25,522 27,187 -1,665
b. Services 5,003 3,766 1,237 5,755 3,897 1,858
- transport 1,769 625 1,144 2,032 663 1,369
- tourism-travel 460 690 -230 590 702 -112
- other 2,774 2,451 323 3,133 2,532 601
B. Income 575 2,268 -1,693 509 3,481 -2,972
C. Current transfers 3,492 1,461 2,031 3,543 1,642 1,901

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 1,192 million (down 10.3 percent as compared with January – June 2013), of which equity stakes (including reinvested earnings) amounted to EUR 1,114 million and intragroup loans to EUR 78 million.

Medium- and long-term external debt at end-June 2014 stood at EUR 75,301 million (81.0 percent of total external debt), down 2.1 percent from end-2013.

Short-term external debt at end-June 2014 totalled EUR 17,657 million (19.0 percent of total external debt), down 7.9 percent from end-2013.

1 Estimates.

Romania's external debt at end-June 2014*
and external debt service in January - June 2014
- EUR million -
  External debt External debt service
January - June 2014p
End-2013p End-June 2014p
I. Medium- and long-term external debt 76,894 75,301 11,144
I.1. Direct public debta) o/w: 28,347 29,513 3,728
I.1.1. IMF borrowings 1,121 583 561
I.2. Publicly guaranteed debtb) 1,229 1,145 93
I.3. Non-publicly guaranteed debt 36,157 35,945 3,924
I.4. Medium- and long-term deposits of non-residents 6,453 6,265 1,035e
I.5. IMF borrowingsc) 4,708 2,433 2,364
II. Short-term external debt 19,166 17,657 14,959e
Total external debt (I+II) 96,060 92,958 26,103

*) 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 35.6 percent in the first six months of 2014 against 41.9 percent in 2013. At end-June 2014, goods and services import cover stood at 6.6 months, as compared to 7 months 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.