I. International Balance of Payments
1. Current Account
The statistics released by the National Bank of Romania (BNR) show that in January 2020, Romania’s current account surplus was 149 million euros, with a decrease of 53.7% year on year (see table 1)
Table 1:Romania’s International Balance of Payments (Current Account) in January 2020
Unit: million euros
| January 2019* | January 2020* | ||||
inflow | outflow | net value | Inflow | outflow | net value | |
Current account(A+B+C) | 8,681 | 8,359, | 322 | 9,228 | 9,079 | 149 |
A. Goods + services | 6,964 | 7,439 | -475 | 7,394 | 8,004 | -610 |
a. Goods(FOB export-FOB import)** | 5,082 | 6,297 | -1,215 | 5,259 | 6,553 | -1,294 |
b. Services | 1,882 | 1,142 | 740 | 2,135 | 1,451 | 684 |
-Processing trade service | 231 | 11 | 220 | 235 | 13 | 222 |
-Transportation | 571 | 225 | 346 | 643 | 301 | 342 |
-Tourism | 211 | 367 | -156 | 262 | 432 | -170 |
-Other services | 869 | 539 | 330 | 995 | 705 | 290 |
B. Primary income (including salary, investment income and other income) | 1,104 | 522 | 582 | 1,348 | 609 | 739 |
C.Secondary income(including private and government transfers) | 613 | 398 | 215 | 486 | 466 | 20 |
*preliminary statistics
The data in table 1 show that in January 2020, the deficit of Romania's trade in goods and services totaled 610 million euros, with an increase of 28.4% year on year. Of the total amount, the deficit of trade in goods was 1.294 billion euros, with a year-on-year increase of 6.5%; the surplus of trade in services was 684 million euros, with a year-on-year decrease of 7.6%.
In terms of the sectors of trade in services, the surplus of processing trade service was 222 million euros, with a decrease of 0.9% year on year; the surplus of transportation was 342 million euros, with a decrease of 1.2% year on year; the deficit of tourism was 170 million euros, with an increase of 8.97% year on year; the surplus of other services was 290 million euros, with a year-on-year decrease of 12.1%.
The surplus of primary income was 739 million euros, up 26.98% year on year. The surplus of secondary income was 20 million euros, down 9.1% year on year.
2. Capital Account
In January 2020, the FDI in Romania totaled 451 million euros (estimated value), of which the portfolio investment of transnational corporations was 193 million euros, and equity investment was 258 million euros.
II. Foreign debts
According to the data released by BNR, as of the end of January 2020, Romania's short-term and long-term external outstanding debts totaled 109.928 billion euros, with an increase of 3.7% compared with that at the end of 2019 (see Table 2)
Table 2: Romania’s Foreign Debts in End-January 2020 and the Foreign Debt Repayment in January 2020
Unit: million euros
Romania’s foreign debts in End-January 2020 and the foreign debt repayment in January 2020 | |||
Foreign debts | Foreign debt repayment in January 2020** | ||
| Balance on December 31, 2019** | Balance in end-January 2020** | |
1 Long-term foreign debt | 72,740 | 77,314 | 868 |
1.1 Foreign public debt | 39,490 | 43,169 | 62 |
1.1.1 Foreign direct public debt (a) | 39,204 | 42,889 | 56 |
1.1.2 Publicly guaranteed foreign debt(b) | 286 | 280 | 6 |
1.2 Non-publicly guaranteed foreign debt | 32,034 | 32,915 | 806 |
1.2.1 Non-resident long-term deposits | 702 | 787 | 14 |
1.3 Loans from monetary organizations | 1,216 | 1,230 | 0 |
1.3.1 SDR allocations | 1,216 | 1,230 | 0 |
2Short-term foreign debt | 33,260 | 32,614e | 4,837* |
Total foreign debt(1+2) | 106,000 | 109,928 | 5,705 |
**preliminary statistics *** predicted statistics
(a) Direct contractual loans of Romania’s Ministry of Public Finance or local governments according to Romania’s Public Foreign Debt Law
(b) Guaranteed loans of Romania’s Ministry of Public Finance or local governments according to Romania’s Public Foreign Debt Law
According to the above table, the balance of short-term foreign debt was 32.614 billion euros, with a decrease of 1.9% compared with that at the end of 2019, accounting for 29.7% of the total foreign debt over the same period; its proportion decreased by 1.7% compared with that at the end of 2019. The balance of long-term foreign debt was 77.314 billion euros, accounting for 70.3% of the total foreign debt over the same period, with an increase of 6.3% compared with that at the end of 2019; its proportion increased by 1.7% compared with that at the end of 2019.
In terms of foreign debt structure, the balance of foreign direct public debt and publicly guaranteed foreign debt was 43.169 billion euros, up 9.3% compared with that at the end of 2019, accounting for 55.8% of long-term foreign debt and 39.3% of total foreign debt over that period. The balance of non-publicly guaranteed foreign debt was 32.915 billion euros, with an increase of 2.8% compared with that at the end of 2019, accounting for 42.6% of long-term foreign debt and 29.9% of total foreign debt over that period.
In terms of debt repayment, in January 2020, Romania paid off 5.705 billion euros, of which the repayment rate of the long-term foreign debt was 11.7%, lower than the foreign debt repayment rate over the same period in December 2019 (18.0%).
The import coverage of goods and services was 5.0 months, higher than that at the end of 2019 (4.6 months), showing Romania’s rising payment capacity.
3. Foreign exchange reserves
By the end of January 2020, the BNR’s holding of foreign exchange reserves was 35.505 billion euros, up 2.579 billion euros compared with that at the end of December 2019.
The gold reserve was 103.6 tons. Due to the fluctuation of the gold price, the market value was 4.773 billion euros. The international reserves (foreign exchange + gold) were 40.278 billion euros, and increased by 2.828 billion euros compared with that at the end of December 2019.
BNR’s foreign public debt and publicly guaranteed foreign debt that fell due in February 2020 amounted to 216 million euros.