NBR: Balance of payments and external debt - May 2013

Publish date: 12-07-2013

PRESS RELEASE

In January - May 2013p, the balance-of-payments current account posted a surplus of EUR 314 million as compared with a deficit of EUR 2,281 million in the first five months of 2012, due to the decrease in trade balance and income deficits (by EUR 1,471 million and EUR 502 million respectively) and to services going into surplus (EUR 783 million, from a deficit of EUR 18 million).

- EUR millions -

	January – May 2012p	January – May 2013p
	CREDIT	DEBIT	NET	CREDIT	DEBIT	NET
CURRENT ACCOUNT (A+B+C)	24,987	27,268	-2,281	26,624	26,310	314
A. Goods and services	21,568	24,340	-2,772	23,341	23,841	-500
a. Goods (exports fob – imports fob)*	18,630	21,384	-2,754	19,689	20,972	-1,283
b. Services	2,938	2,956	-18	3,652	2,869	783
- transport	836	540	296	1,257	495	762
- tourism-travel	422	515	-93	433	547	-114
- other	1,680	1,901	-221	1,962	1,827	135
B. Incomes	537	1,818	-1,281	404	1,183	-779
C. Current transfers	2,882	1,110	1,772	2,879	1,286	1,593

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 Romania totalled EUR 414 million (as compared with EUR 656 million in January-May 2012), of which intragroup loans amounted to EUR 329 million and equity stakes consolidated with the estimated net loss to EUR 85 million.

Medium- and long-term external debt at end-May 2013 stood at EUR 79,499 million (79.5 percent of total external debt), 1.0 percent above the level recorded at end-2012.

Short-term external debt at end-May 2013 totalled EUR 20,467 million (20.5 percent of total external debt), up 1.1 percent from end-2012.

- EUR millions -

Romania’s external debt at end-May 2013* and external debt service in January – May 2013
	External debt	External debt service January – May 2013p
	End-2012p	End-May 2013p
I. Medium- and long-term external debt	78,717	79,499	7,908
I.1. Direct public debta) o/w: I.1.1. IMF borrowings	23,696 2,144	27,750 1,842	1,165 314
I.2. Publicly guaranteed debtb)	1,426	1,365	65
I.3. Non-publicly guaranteed debt	37,130	36,447	3,402
I.4. Medium- and long-term deposits of non-residents	7,810	6,912	1,621e
I.5. IMF borrowingsc)	8,655	7,025	1,655
II. Short-term external debt	20,251	20,467	11,779e
Total external debt (I+II)	98,968	99,966	19,687

*) 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 33.9 percent in the first five months of 2013, against 33.5 percent in 2012. At end-May 2013, goods and services import cover stood at 7.6 months, as compared with 7.1 months at end-2012.

Methodological Notes

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.

External debt service ratio is calculated as a ratio of medium- and long-term external debt service to exports of goods and services.

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.

Balance of payments data are updated on a monthly basis; updates are available in the Interactive database.

PRESS RELEASE of National Bank of Romania

NBR: Balance of payments and external debt - May 2013

External debt

End-2012p

End-May 2013p

I. Medium- and long-term external debt

I.4. Medium- and long-term deposits of non-residents

I.5. IMF borrowingsc)

II. Short-term external debt

Total external debt (I+II)

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