The bank loans taken out by companies from lenders in Romania stands at around 110 billion lei (some EUR24 billion) or 8% of the total.
Companies’ foreign debt accounts for almost 40% of the total foreign debt.
Foreign debt in form of funding from parent companies to subsidiaries has tripled in a decade, going from EUR8.5 billion in 2008 to EUR26.8 billion in 2017 and its share in the total foreign debt rose from 38% to 73%, Romania’s central bank data show.
The financial foreign debt, taken out by companies from foreign lenders, rose to almost EUR10 billion at the end of last year, 30% lower than at the end of 2008.
The rise of the share of lending from parent to daughter companies in the total, visible after 2010, came along with a rise in short-term loans.
Corporate short-term loans rose as a share of the total debt from 25% in December 2010 to 38% in December 2017, while short-term loans from parent companies to subsidiaries went up by one third to about half of the funding, Romania’s central bank data show.
Short-term foreign debt was the main vulnerability that sent Romania in the ropes at the end of 2008, when the financial crisis was making its presence felt worldwide.
Total short-term foreign debt, which includes the external loans taken out by the government, banks and private sector companies and must be repaid within the next 12 months peaked at EUR28.5 billion at the end of the first half.
The ratio of short-term foreign debt and foreign currency reserve is close to the almost 90% high reached in November 2008.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)