Current account deficit down by over 18% in Q1

In January – June 2023, the balance-of-payments current account posted a deficit of EUR 9,826 million, compared with EUR 11,997 million in the same year-ago period. The breakdown shows that the deficit on trade in goods declined by EUR 1,447 million, the surplus on services expanded by EUR 1,696 million, the primary income deficit grew by EUR 847 million, while the secondary income surplus decreased by EUR 125 million, informs a press release by the National Bank of Romania.

residenNon-residents’ direct investment in -ts’ direct investmenRomania totalled EUR 3,930 million (compared with EUR 4,533 million in January – June 2022), of which equity (including the estimated net reinvestment of earnings) and intercompany lending recorded net values of EUR 4,283 million and EUR -353 million, respectively.

In January – June 2023, total external debt increased by EUR 14,672 million, of which:

• long-term external debt at end-June 2023 ran at EUR 112,591 million (70.7 percent of total external debt), up 15.2 percent against end-2022;
• short-term external debt at end-June 2023 amounted to EUR 46,642 million (29.3 percent of total external debt), down 0.4 percent from end-2022.

Long-term external debt service ratio stood at 14.9 percent in January – June 2023 against 16.2 percent in 2022. At end-June 2023, goods and services import cover stood at 5.1 months, as compared to 4.4 months at end-2022.

At end-June 2023, the ratio of the National Bank of Romania’s foreign exchange reserves to short-term external debt by remaining maturity came in at 90.5 percent, as against 80.2 percent at end-2022.