Romania Jan-July Current Account Gap Widens To EUR3.8B

The current transfers balance posted a surplus of EUR1.54 billion in January to July, down 32% from EUR2.27 billion in the same period of last year.

Foreign direct investments, which stood at EUR1.9 billion, covered half of Romania’s current account deficit in the first seven months of 2010.

A year earlier, Romanian FDI was EUR2.97 billion.

Romania’s total external debt reached EUR87.54 billion at the end of July, up from EUR80.3 billion in December last year, according to central bank data.

The wider debt was mostly due to the raising medium and long-term debt, which stood at EUR70.5 billion in July, from EUR65.7 billion at the end of 2009.

The short-term debt was at EUR17.04 billion, up from EUR14.6 billion at the end of December.

In 2009, Romania’s current account deficit narrowed 68.7% on the year to EUR5.05 billion.