Current account deficit in the first 5 months up 32.6 percent to EUR 3.4 billion

Aurel Dragan 15/07/2019 | 14:24

The current account of balance of payments recorded a deficit of EUR 3.4 billion in the first five months of 2019, up 32.6 percent compared to the same period in 2018 of EUR 2.564 billion, according to National Bank of Romania (BNR) data.

In structure, the trade balance recorded a deficit higher by EUR 1.47 billion, the services balance recorded a surplus higher by EUR 116 million, the balance of primary income account recorded a lower deficit of EUR 778 million and balance revenue side posted a smaller surplus of EUR 255 million.

Between January and May 2019, total external debt increased by EUR 4.1 billion. In the structure, long-term foreign debt amounted to EUR 69.45 billion on 31 May 2019 (67.1 percent of total external debt), up 2.2 percent on December 31, 2018; the short-term external debt recorded the level of EUR 34.07 billion (32.9 percent of total foreign debt) on 31 May 2019, up 8.3 percent compared to December 31, 2018.

Rate long-term external debt service was 19.5 percent during January-May 2019 compared to 21.2 percent in 2018. The coverage of imports of goods and services on May 31, 2019 was 4.6 months , compared with 4.9 months on 31 December 2018.

Short-term external debt coverage, calculated at residual value, with foreign exchange reserves at the NBR at May 31, 2019 was 72.6 percent compared to 74.3 percent at December 32, 2018.