In January – September 2024, the balance-of-payments current account posted a deficit of EUR 19,777 million, compared with EUR 16,063 million in the same year-ago period, the National Bank of Romania (BNR) announced today. The breakdown shows that the deficit on trade in goods widened by EUR 2,840 million, the surplus on services fell by EUR 1,342 million, the primary income deficit decreased by EUR 66 million, while the secondary income surplus grew by EUR 402 million.
In Romania foreign direct investment totalled totalled EUR 5,362 million (compared with EUR 5,171 million in January – September 2023), of which equity (including the estimated reinvestment of earnings) and intercompany lending recorded net values of EUR 4,288 million and EUR 1,074 million, respectively.
In January – September 2024, total external debt increased by EUR 17,846 million to EUR 186,181 million, of which:
- long-term external debt at end-September 2024 ran at EUR 138,823 million (74.6 percent of total external debt), up 13.7 percent against end-2023;
- short-term external debt at end-September 2024 amounted to EUR 47,358 million (25.4 percent of total external debt), up 2.4 percent from end-2023.
Long-term external debt service ratio stood at 16.3 percent in September 2024 against 18 percent in 2023. At end-September 2024, goods and services import cover ran at 6.1 months, as compared to 5.6 months at end-2023.
At end-September 2024, the ratio of the National Bank of Romania’s foreign exchange reserves to short-term external debt by remaining maturity came in at 110.4 percent, as against 99.7 percent at end-2023.