Romania ranks 12th in terms of foreign deficit worldwide

Romania ranked 12th out of 163 states last year, in terms of the absolute value of current account deficit, shows a ranking devised by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in the United States, published in the “World Factbook 2007”, based on data supplied by the IMF and World Bank. Romania last year had a 10 billion-euro current account deficit, bigger than all the states in the region and even managed to top states with economies several times larger. The current account deficit (the foreign deficit) measures net foreign currency outflows and is currently the economy’s main weakness – admit both analysts and officials. In fact, Romania is the top country in the region in terms of current account deficit, surpassing Hungary (with 6.7 billion euros, 14th) and Bulgaria (with 4.1 billions, 18th), as well as other central and Eastern European states. In the GDP ranking, based on the purchasing power parity, Romania ranks 48th out of 229 states, according to the CIA. As for the GDP per capita based on purchasing power parity, Romania ranks 98th out of 229 states. At the same time, in the ranking of foreign direct investments (which fund the foreign deficit), Romania ranked 25th last year, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit. Last year, foreign direct investments stood at 9.1 billion euros, accounting for 91% of the foreign deficit. “As long as we have large foreign direct investments and economic growth, our foreign deficit will continue to increase in absolute value,” says Lucian Anghel, chief economist at the BCR.