National Bank of Romania reports EUR 27.14bn current account deficit and external debt rising to EUR 227.51bn through November 2025

The National Bank of Romania (NBR) released provisional balance of payments and external debt data for November 2025, showing the current account deficit widened to EUR 27.14bn in January–November 2025 from EUR 26.06bn in the same period of 2024. The deterioration mainly reflected a larger primary income deficit and a smaller secondary income surplus, partly offset by a narrower deficit on goods and services. Within the current account, the goods and services deficit improved to EUR 18.40bn, with the goods deficit narrowing to EUR 29.38bn and the services surplus edging up to EUR 10.97bn. The primary income deficit increased to EUR 8.89bn, while the secondary income surplus fell to EUR 0.15bn. Non-resident direct investment in Romania totalled EUR 7.59bn over January–November 2025, comprising net equity including estimated reinvested earnings of EUR 5.02bn and net intra-group loans of EUR 2.56bn. Total external debt rose by EUR 24.00bn to EUR 227.51bn at 30 November 2025, with long-term debt at EUR 178.60bn (78.5% of the total) and short-term debt at EUR 48.91bn (21.5%). The long-term external debt service ratio was 17.0% for January–November 2025 (21.5% in 2024), international reserves covered 6.0 months of imports at 30 November 2025 (5.7 months at end-2024), and foreign exchange reserves covered 103.5% of short-term external debt at residual maturity (103.6% at end-2024). The next monthly “Balance of payments and external debt” release is scheduled for 16 February 2026.