Romania’s balance of payments recorded a deficit of more than 23 billion euros in the first 10 months of this year, well above the 14 billion euros recorded in the same period last year, according to BNR data sent on Wednesday.

Trade in goods created a larger deficit by 8 billion euros, services produced a larger surplus by 2.3 billion euros, and the balance of primary income recorded a larger deficit by 3.66 billion euros.

• Direct investments of non-residents in Romania they amounted to EUR 9,399 million (compared to EUR 7,794 million in the period January-October 2021), of which the equity portion (including estimated net reinvested earnings) had a net value of EUR 6,617 million, and intra-group loans recorded a net worth 2,782 million euros.

• In January-October 2022 total external debt increased by 2.88 billion euros.

The long-term external debt service ratio for January-October 2022 was 15.6% against 17% in 2021. The degree of coverage of imports of goods and services as of October 31, 2022 was 4.4 months against 4.9 months as of December 31, 2021.