Imports pressuring current account

Two months before the end of 2002, the current account deficit of Romania’s balance of payments had come to exceed $1.1bn, following a $158 million increase in October. The ten-month deficit, however, was approximately 30% lower than in the same time last year, given that it was still below one billion dollars nine months through 2002. The jump in the current account deficit in October was caused by the over $300 million increase in the trade deficit balance, which amounted to more than $2bn in FOB/FOB prices for the first ten months. Current transfer inflows remained the main financing stream for the current account deficit, totalling more than $1.4bn at the end of October. The net balance of the ten-month transfers amounted to $1.27bn, nearly 40% above the ten-month level in 2001. ZF