Romania's Jan - July current account deficit 24 pct higher YoY

The current account of Romania's Jan - July balance of payments ran a deficit of 6.025 billion euros, up by about 24 percent from 4.859 billion euros registered in the similar period of 2018, the National Bank of Romania (BNR) said in a release on Friday. 

The goods deficit was by 2.069 billion euros higher, the surplus of the balance of services advanced by 436 million euros, the primary income deficit was 720 million euros less, and the surplus of secondary incomes was down by 253 million euros. 

The country's total external debt over January - July 2019 increased by 8.194 billion euros. The long-term external debt totaled 73.331 billion euros as of July 31, 2019 (68.1 percent of total foreign debt), up 7.9 percent from December 31, 2018, while the short-term external debt stood at 34.28 billion euros (31.9 percent of total external debt), up 9 percent from December 31, 2018. 

"The rise in the public direct debt over the first seven months of 2019 came mainly from the Ministry of Finance's EUR 5,000 ml eurobond issues, as well as from revaluations due to price changes of the securities issued by the general government, worth EUR 2,134 million," the release said. 

The long-term external debt service ratio was 17.6 percent between January - July 2019, compared to 21.2 percent in 2018. 

The goods and services import cover was 5 months as of July 31, 2019, compared to 4.9 months at the end of 2018. 

As of July 31, 2019 the ratio of BNR's foreign exchange reserves to the short-term external debt by remaining maturity was 77.7 percent, compared to 74.3 percent as of December 31, 2018.