October 13 (SeeNews) - Romania's current account deficit narrowed by 78.6% on the year to an estimated 2.449 billion euro ($3.6 billion) in the first eightmonths of 2009 thanks to a shrinking trade gap, the country's central bank said on Tuesday.
Romania's trade deficit for the January-August period narrowed by 68.6% on the year to 3.923 billion euro on a FOB/FOB (free-on-board) basis, the central bank said in a statement.
The current account deficit was completely covered by foreign direct investments (FDI), which totalled 3.154 billion euro over the review period. FDI in Romania reached 6.725 billion euro in the first eight months of 2008, BNR said.
Details follow (in billions of euro):
|
Jan-Aug'09* |
Jan-Aug'08** |
Current account balance |
-2.449 |
-11.445 |
- Trade |
-3.923 |
-12.481 |
-- Exports (FOB) |
18.560 |
22.955 |
-- Imports (FOB) |
22.483 |
35.436 |
- Services |
-27 |
-90 |
- Income |
-1.448 |
-3.715 |
- Current transfers |
+2.991 |
+4.303 |
* estimated figures
** revised figures
In August the International Monetary Fund revised its projection for Romania's 2009 current account deficit to 5.5% of gross domestic product (GDP) from 7.5% projected earlier. Romania's current account gap was equivalent to some 12.6% of GDP last year.
($ = 0.6762 euro)