Current account deficit doubles

The current account of the balance of payments saw a 131 million-euro deficit at the end of February, 2.1 times higher than the deficit in the corresponding period of last year, National Bank of Romania (NBR) data show. The deficit in the first two months of 2003 was 61 million euros. Current transfers saw 241 million-euro surplus, which partly offset the 339 million euro trade balance deficit. The central bank data show the gap between imports and exports to have widened, with the deficit of the trade in goods going up from 221 million euros in 2003 to 339 million euros at the end of February 2004. The only balance of payments component to have registered excess was that of the transport activities, which provided a slight plus on the service segment (two million euros). The National Bank data reveal the medium and long-term debt at the end of February amounted to 15.5bn euros, up 0.8% from late 2003. As for the public and state-secured debt, it amounted to 9.8bn euros and accounted for 63.4% of the medium and long-term debt, compared with 62.9% on December 31, 2003. ZF