The current account of the balance of payments recorded a surplus of 149 million euro, in January 2020 compared to 322 million euro in January 2019, according to data from the National Bank of Romania (BNR).
"The deficit on trade in goods widened by EUR 79 million, the surplus on services income decreased by EUR 56 million, the surplus of the primary income balance increased by EUR 157 million, and the surplus of the secondary income balance narrowed by EUR 195 million," a release of the central bank sent on Monday to AGERPRES shows.
In January 2020, the total external debt increased by 3.928 million euro, of which: long-term external debt at end-January 2020 stood at 77.314 million euro (70.3 percent of total external debt), up 6.3 percent against December 31, 2019.
The short-term external debt at end-January 2020 amounted to EUR 32.614 million (29.7 percent of total external debt), down 1.9 percent from December 31, 2019.
Long-term external debt service ratio ran at 11.7 percent in January 2020 against 18 percent in 2019. At the end of January 2020, goods and services import cover stood at 5 months, as compared to 4.6 months on December 31, 2019.
At the end of January 2020, the ratio of the National Bank of Romania's foreign exchange reserves to short-term external debt by remaining maturity came in at 77.3 percent, against 72.2 percent on December 31, 2019.