Romania’s external debt up by EUR 6.43 bln in the first 11 months of 2021

In January – November 2021, the balance-of-payments current account posted a deficit of EUR 15,313 million, compared with EUR 9,753 million in the same year-earlier period, says the latest report by National Bank of Romania. The breakdown shows that the deficits on trade in goods and on primary income widened by EUR 3,895 million and EUR 784 million, respectively; the surplus on secondary income and that on services decreased by EUR 515 million and EUR 366 million, respectively.

Non-resident direct investment in Romania totalled on-residents’ direct investmentEUR 6,866 million (compared with EUR 2,397 million in January – November 2020), of which equity (including the estimated net reinvestment of earnings) and intercompany lending recorded net values of EUR 5,499 million and EUR 1,367 million, respectively.

In January – November 2021, total external debt increased by EUR 6,430 million, of which:

• long-term external debt at end-November 2021 ran at EUR 96,501 million (72.4 percent of total external debt), up 3.2 percent against end-2020;
• short-term external debt at end-November 2021 amounted to EUR 36,736 million (27.6 percent of total external debt), up 10.4 percent from end-2020.

Long-term external debt service ratio ran at 15.9 percent in January – November 2021 against 20.7 percent in 2020. At end-November 2021, goods and services import cover stood at 4.9 months, as compared to 5.6 months at end-2020.

At end-November 2021, the ratio of the National Bank of Romania’s foreign exchange reserves to short-term external debt by remaining maturity came in at 82.3 percent, against 90.3 percent at end-2020.