Current account deficit, up 138.8% two months into 2018

The current account of the balance of payments registered a deficit of 172 million euro in the first two months of 2018, up 138.8 percent compared to the similar period of 2017, shows a press release of the National Bank of Romania (BNR) issued on Friday for AGERPRES.

In the similar period of last year, the current account deficit amounted to 72 million euro.

According to the document, the balance of goods recorded a deficit higher by 434 million euro, the balance of services and the balance of secondary incomes recorded surpluses by 6 million euro and 2 million euro lower, respectively, while the primary income balance recorded a surplus of 170 million euro, compared with a deficit of 172 million euro.

According to the National Bank of Romania, between January and February 2018, total foreign debt increased by 1.558 billion euro.

In the structure, the long-term foreign debt amounted to 69.503 billion euro on February 28, 2018 (73.1 percent of total foreign debt), up 1.3 percent from December 31, 2017. Short-term foreign debt stood at 25.532 billion euro (26.9 percent of the total foreign debt) on February 28, 2018, up 2.7 percent as compared to December 31, 2017.