Romania sees foreign investments drop by 11 pct in 2014

Newsroom 13/02/2015 | 16:02

Non-residents’ direct investment in Romania is estimated at EUR 2.42 billion in 2014, according to data released on Friday by the National Bank of Romania (BNR). This marks a 10.6 percent drop compared to the post-crisis peak reported in 2013.

Romania attracted EUR 2.71 billion worth of foreign direct investments (FDI) in 2013. This was up by 27 percent against 2012 when FDI posted the first increase after the beginning of the economic downturn but still more than three times below the record EUR 9.5 billion reported for 2008.

Out of the EUR 2.42 billion registered last year, equity (including estimated net loss) amounted to EUR 2.58 billion and intercompany lending posted net payments of EUR 155 million.

The central bank also announced that Romania’s long-term external debt at end-December 2014 stood at EUR 76.11 billion (80.8 percent of total external debt), down 3.5 percent from end-2013.

Short-term external debt at end-December 2014 amounted to EUR 18.14 billion (19.2 percent of total external debt), down 5.6 percent from end-2013.

Overall, Romania’s total external debt lessened by EUR 3.8 billion in 2014 while its long-term external debt service ratio ran at 38.3 percent in 2014 against 42.9 percent in 2013.

At end-December 2014, goods and services import cover stood at 6.9 months, as compared with 7.3 months at end-2013.