Current account balance deficit increases by 2.74 billion euro in first 5 months of year

The current account balance of payments deficit has increased by 2.74 billion euro in the first five months of this year, to 5.947 billion euro, from 3.207 billion euro in the January - May 2020 period, according to data of the National Bank of Romania sent on Wednesday to AGERPRES. "In the structure of this deficit, the balance of goods recorded a higher deficit by 1.130 million euro, the balance of secondary income and services recorded lower surplus by 287 million euro and 72 million euro, respectively, and the balance of primary income transformed its surplus into deficit," the central bank release mentions. In the January - May 2021 period, the total foreign debt grew by 1.057 billion euro. In its structure, the long-term debt totaled 92.193 billion euro on May 31, 2021 (72.6 of the total foreign debt), a drop by 0.7 pct over December 31, 2020, and the short-term foreign debt recorded the level of 34.791 billion euro (27.4 of the total foreign debt), increasing by 5.1 pct over December 31, 2020. The service rate of the long-term foreign debt was 17.4 pct in the January - May 2021 period, compared to 20.1 pct in 2020. The goods and services coverage rate on May 31, 2021, was of 4.9 month, compared to 5.6 month on December 31, 2020. The coverage rate of the short-term foreign debt, calculated at its residual value, with the BNR's currency reserves on May 31, 2021, was 84.8, compared to 90.7 pct, on December 31, 2020. AGERPRES (RO - author: Andreea Marinescu; editor: Mariana Nica; EN - author: Razvan-Adrian Pandea, editor: Simona Iacob)