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Current account deficit reached 1.472 billion euros in Q1
Romania's current account deficit reached 1.472 billion euros in the first quarter, according to data released on Friday by the National Bank of Romania (BNR, the central bank).
In Q1 2015, the balance was on a 524 million euros surplus.
Both the primary income balance and the goods balance were on higher deficits, of 1.356 billion euros and 570 million euros, respectively, while the surplus on services narrowed by 100 million euros and that on secondary income widened by 30 million euros.
BNR Governor Mugur Isarescu had recently observed that policies to stimulate consumption - the tax cuts early in 2016 - rather boosted imports, a trend anticipated by the central bank when the new Tax Code was still debated.
Romania's long-term external debt at end-March stood at 70.414 billion euros (79.1 percent of total external debt), down 0.4 percent from end-2015. Short-term external debt at end-March amounted to 18.597 billion euros (20.9 percent of total external debt), down 3.8 percent against end-2015.
In the period under review, total external debt declined by 1.023 billion euros: the monetary authority's debt decreased by 36 million euros and the non-publicly guaranteed debt by 1.124 billion euros, while the public debt increased by 437 million euros.
Long-term external debt service ratio ran at 30.2 percent in January - March against 35 percent in 2015. At end-March, goods and services import cover stood at 6.4 months, unchanged from end-2015.
At end-March, the ratio of the National Bank of Romania's foreign exchange reserves to short-term external debt by remaining maturity came in at 105.6 percent, as compared with 99.5 percent at end-2015.