In January 2022p, the balance-of-payments current account posted a deficit of EUR 815 million, compared with a surplus of EUR 9 million in the same year-ago period. The breakdown shows that the deficit on trade in goods widened by EUR 868 million, the surplus on services decreased by EUR 22 million, that on primary income shrank by EUR 93 million and the secondary income balance recorded a surplus of EUR 15 million against a deficit of EUR 144 million in the same year-ago period.
| January – January 2021p | January – January 2022p | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CREDIT | DEBIT | BALANCE | CREDIT | DEBIT | BALANCE | |
| CURRENT ACCOUNT (A+B+C) | 8,703 | 8,694 | 9 | 10,420 | 11,235 | -815 |
| A. Goods and services | 6,934 | 7,391 | -457 | 8,557 | 9,904 | -1,347 |
| a. Goods | 5,102 | 6,265 | -1,163 | 6,363 | 8,394 | -2,031 |
| b. Services | 1,832 | 1,126 | 706 | 2,194 | 1,510 | 684 |
| – manufacturing services on physical inputs owned by others | 179 | 16 | 163 | 200 | 13 | 187 |
| – transport | 511 | 221 | 290 | 610 | 274 | 336 |
| – tourism-travel | 100 | 190 | -90 | 214 | 446 | -232 |
| – telecommunications, computer, and information services | 484 | 212 | 272 | 551 | 235 | 316 |
| – other | 558 | 487 | 71 | 619 | 542 | 77 |
| B. Primary income | 1,447 | 837 | 610 | 1,460 | 943 | 517 |
| C. Secondary income | 322 | 466 | -144 | 403 | 388 | 15 |
p – provisional data
Non-residents’ direct investment in Romaniae totalled EUR 463 million (compared with EUR 628 million in January 2021), of which equity (including the estimated net reinvestment of earnings) and intercompany lending recorded net values of EUR 577 million and EUR -114 million, respectively.
In January 2022, total external debt increased by EUR 2,826 million, of which:
- long-term external debt at end-January 2022 ran at EUR 99,294 million (72.4 percent of total external debt), up 2.3 percent against end-2021;
- short-term external debt at end-January 2022 amounted to EUR 37,788 million (27.6 percent of total external debt), up 1.5 percent from end-2021.
| External debt | External debt service, January 2022p | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| End-2021p | End-January 2022p | ||
| 1. General government | 58,686 | 61,103 | 653 |
| Currency and deposits | 283 | 248 | 256 |
| Debt securities | 47,214 | 47,586 | 372 |
| Loans | 11,151 | 13,230 | 22 |
| Trade credit and advances | 34 | 35 | 3 |
| Other debt liabilities | 4 | 4 | 0 |
| 2. Central Bank | 3,365 | 3,393 | 0 |
| Currency and deposits | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Debt securities | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Loans | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Allocation of SDRs | 3,365 | 3,393 | 0 |
| Other debt liabilities | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 3. Deposit taking corporations except the central bank | 7,718 | 7,832 | 560 |
| Currency and deposits | 7,187 | 7,202 | 551 |
| Debt securities | 511 | 588 | 4 |
| Loans | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Other debt liabilities | 20 | 42 | 5 |
| 4. Other sectors | 25,521 | 25,744 | 1,688 |
| Currency and deposits | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Debt securities | 1,220 | 1,201 | 5 |
| Loans | 13,353 | 13,453 | 974 |
| Trade credit and advances | 10,785 | 10,921 | 693 |
| Other debt liabilities | 163 | 169 | 16 |
| I. EXTERNAL DEBT (1+2+3+4)* | 95,290 | 98,072 | 2,901 |
| II. DIRECT INVESTMENT: INTERCOMPANY LENDING | 38,966 | 39,010 | 3,484 |
| III. GROSS EXTERNAL DEBT (I+II) of which: |
134,256 | 137,082 | 6,385 |
| Short term | 37,213 | 37,788 | 5,426 |
| Long term | 97,043 | 99,294 | 959 |
p – provisional data
* Except debt instruments related to direct investment
Long-term external debt service ratio ran at 11.2 percent in January 2022 against 16.5 percent in 2021. At end-January 2022, goods and services import cover stood at 4.9 months, as compared to 5.0 months at end-2021.
At end-January 2022, the ratio of the National Bank of Romania’s foreign exchange reserves to short-term external debt by remaining maturity came in at 86.7 percent, against 82.3 percent at end-2021.
Source: National Bank of Romania