Romania’s FDI, up by 15 pc at end-May

After the first five months of the year, non-residents’ direct investment (FDI) in Romania totalled EUR 1,117 million, up by 15 percent compared to the same period last year, National Bank of Romania (BNR) data show, a press release informs on Thursday.

Of these, equity (including estimated net reinvestment of earnings) amounted to EUR 1,709 million and intercompany lending recorded a negative net value of EUR 592 million.

At the same time, long-term external debt at end-May 2016 stood at EUR 69,935 million (79.5 percent of total external debt), 1.1 percent below the level reported at end-2015.

Short-term external debt at end-May 2016 amounted to EUR 18,082 million (20.5 percent of total external debt), down 6.4 percent against end-2015.

In the period under review, total external debt declined by EUR 2,017 million, of which non-publicly guaranteed debt decreased by EUR 2,443 million and the monetary authority’s debt by EUR 318 million, while public debt increased by EUR 744 million.

Long-term external debt service ratio ran at 27.7 percent in January-May 2016 against 35 percent in 2015. At end-May 2016, goods and services import cover stood at 6.5 months, compared with 6.4 months at end-2015.

At end-May 2016, the ratio of BNR’s foreign exchange reserves to short-term external debt by remaining maturity came in at 108.3 percent, against 99.5 percent at end-2015.

BNR data also reveal that during January – May period, the balance-of-payments current account posted a deficit of EUR 2,600 million, compared with a surplus of EUR 42 million in January – May 2015; the primary income balance and goods balance recorded higher deficits, by EUR 1,704 million and EUR 1,172 million, respectively, while the services balance and secondary income balance posted larger surpluses, by EUR 149 million and EUR 85 million, respectively.