General government debt (public debt) increased in February 2023 to 706.524 billion lei, compared to 694.91 billion lei in the previous month, according to data published by the Ministry of Finance.

As a percentage of GDP, public debt rose to 50.1% from 49.2% in January 2023. Five years ago, Romania’s public debt was about 34.5% of GDP.

In the second month of this year, medium and long-term debt increased to 676.91 billion lei, from 664.26 billion lei in January 2023, while short-term debt decreased to 26.61 billion lei, from 30.657 billion lei in the previous month.

The largest part of this debt, namely 589.86 billion lei, was made up of government bonds. Loans amounted to 106.41 billion lei.

The debt in euros amounted to 308.31 billion lei equivalent, in national currency – 323.26 billion lei, and in US dollars – 73.7 billion lei equivalent.

The debt of the central public administration at the end of February 2023 was 687.763 billion lei against 675.88 billion lei in January, of which 658.19 billion lei is in the medium and long term. Most of the debt of the central administration was contracted in lei (308.68 billion lei) and in euros (304.13 billion lei equivalent).

The debt of the local state administration decreased to 18.76 billion lei, from 19.034 billion lei in January 2023, of which 18.72 billion lei is in the medium and long term.

The internal debt of the state administration amounted to 334.91 billion lei (23.8% of GDP) in February 2023, of which 320.99 billion lei is the debt of the central administration and 13.92 billion lei is the debt of the local administration.

According to the Ministry of Finance, the external debt of the state administration amounted to 371.6 billion lei (26.4% of GDP), of which 366.76 billion lei was the external debt of the central state administration and 4.84 billion lei was the external debt of the local state administration.