Romania added €15.6bn (7.1% of GDP) to its external debt in 2020, the National Bank of Romania (BNR) announced. The total external debt thus hit €125.4bn or 57% of GDP. The external direct public debt rose by €18bn (8.2% of GDP) to €57.2bn.
The increase in direct public debt came from the finance ministry's bond issues on international markets, with a face value of €8.8bn and $3.3bn (€2.7bn) respectively, as well as from net borrowings of €3bn and price changes of securities, worth approximately €1.96bn, a BNR statement reads.
Meanwhile, the publicly unsecured debt, held by banks and companies, reached €32.7bn (nearly 17% of GDP) at the end of 2020, down €902mn from the end of 2019.
Of the total external debt, the long-term external debt increased by 22.8% y/y to €91.27bn (72.8% of total) while the short-term external debt edged down by 3.6% y/y to €34.2bn (27.2% of total).