Foreign debt costs 3bn euros per month

From January through October foreign debt payments – the debt being largely taken out by the private sector – amounted to three billion dollars a month on average, but these volumes did not upset the RON’s stability, partly because of NBR interventions on the forex market.

This year’s payments are, however, considerably lower than those made in 2009, when they amounted to 35 billion euros in the first ten months. This is explained by the adjustment of the short-term debt, i.e. loans that need to be repaid in less than a year. Short-term debt fell to 14 billion euros at the end of last year, from over 22 billion euros, which means eight billion-euro loans could not be rolled over last year. The debt repayment entailed a significant effort on the part of the sector, which had become significantly indebted in past years, but preponderantly for consumption and real estate investments.
“This is the indebtedness of the private sector. The debt service is paid using the private sector surplus,” says Nicolaie Alexandru-Chide[ciuc, chief economist of ING Bank.
At the end of October, the overall foreign debt climbed to an 89.3 billion-euro all-time high.