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In January - May 2020, Romania's balance-of-payments current account posted a deficit of 2,881 million euros, compared with 3,414 million euros in the same year-ago period, according to data released on Tuesday by the National Bank of Romania (BNR).
The deficit on trade in goods widened by 921 million euros, the surplus on services increased by 379 million euros, the primary income balance recorded a positive contribution of 513 million euros, and the surplus of the secondary income balance rose by 562 million euros.
In January - May 2020, total external debt increased by 5,023 million euros, of which long-term external debt at end-May 2020 stood at 77,630 million euros (70 percent of total external debt), up 5.4 percent from end-2019; short-term external debt at end-May 2020 amounted to 33,266 million euros (30 percent of total external debt), up 3.2 percent from end-2019.
BNR notices that an increase in direct public debt coming from the Eurobonds issued by the Ministry of Public Finance with a face value of 6,300 million euros and from net borrowings of 562 million euros was limited by revaluations due to price changes of the securities issued by the general government, worth around -1,913 million euros.
Long-term external debt service ratio ran at 18.8 percent in January - May 2020 against 18.6 percent in 2019. At end-May 2020, goods and services import cover stood at 5.8 months, as compared to 4.6 months at end-2019.
At end-May 2020, the ratio of the National Bank of Romania's foreign exchange reserves to short-term external debt by remaining maturity came in at 79.3 percent, against 73.8 percent at end-2019.
