Public Debt Reaches 123.6 Billion RON In End-June

Romania"s public debt reached 123.6 billion RON or 23.27% of the Gross Domestic Product at the end of June 2009, according to a report released by the Finance Ministry. Compared to the 109.752 billion RON or 21.78% of the GDP reported for the corresponding period of 2009, the country"s debt increased by 12.62 percentage points. Of the overall public debt, 64.10% is denominated in RON and 25.30% in EUR, slightly down from the 28.59% reported for the year-ago interval.

At the end of June, the governmental public debt accounted for 92.96% of the total, while local public debt accounted for 7.04% of the total debt. According to the Finance Ministry, the negotiable public debt at the end of June 2009 equalled 40.30% of the public debt, by 56.8% more than at the end of 2009. The non-negotiable debt accounted for the remaining 59.7%.

Governmental loans taken in the first half of the year totalled 41,196.2 million RON of which 40,645.6 million RON in governmental securities placed on the domestic and international markets. Cash management instruments accounted for 350 million RON, while direct State loans accounted for 200.7 million RON.

A large part of the governmental securities (38.75%) issued in the reporting period had a maturity of 6 months, whereas 29.5% of them were issued for 3 months, 19.19% for 1 month, 6.33% for 1 year and 2.93% for 5 years. The governmental securities issued in June also came with maturities of less than 1 year (68.98% of the total), not considering Eurobonds and Treasury certificates for the general population. Some 27.5% of the governmental securities issued in June were issued for 1-5 years, while 3.52% were issued for 5 years or more. The average maturity of the governmental securities issued by 30 June 2009 is 1.3 years, according to the same report.

The budget deficit has been financed so far this year mainly from foreign sources (66.3%), with domestic funds only covering 31.8% of the deficit service. Revenue from privatization processes and the State Asset Recovery Authority (AVAS) contributed 1.9% to the deficit service.