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Romanian Pres: S&P Downgrade Decision Not Plausible As Public Debt Is Low

Romanian president Traian Basescu said Thursday that the downgrade in Romania’s rating made by Standard & Poor’s on Monday is not plausible as Romania’s public debt is “extremely low”.
Romanian Pres: S&P Downgrade Decision Not Plausible As Public Debt Is Low
30 oct. 2008, 19:43, English

"We are not making the evaluations, Standard & Poor’s is. But I want to state that Romania’s public debt stands at EUR11 billion, which means the country has a very low debt degree," Basescu said in a press conference.
 
On Monday, Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services lowered its long- and short-term foreign currency sovereign credit ratings on Romania to ‘BB+/B’ from ‘BBB-/A-3’, and its local currency long-term rating to ‘BBB-‘ from ‘BBB’, citing risks to the country’s economy due to high private-sector leverage and dependency on an uncertain external financing channel.
 
Basescu said that in the evaluation, S&P did not take into account the country’s public debt, but the private debt.
 
He added that the most of the foreign debt is private debt, which is not state-guaranteed, and has no impact over the public budget.
 
According to the central bank’s data, Romania’s total foreign debt stood at EUR47.46 billion at end-August, of which the public debt accounted for EUR10.65 billion.
Basescu also mentioned that Romania’s forex reserve stands at EUR27 billion.