Romania’s trade gap narrows by 7.6% y/y in Q3 on stronger exports

Romania’s trade in goods posted a EUR 7.75 billion deficit in Q3, 7.6% smaller compared to the same period in 2024, according to data published by the statistics office INS. The trade gap expanded by 10.9% year-over-year (y/y) to EUR 16.7 billion in H1.

It is still premature to conclude that fiscal consolidation has a positive impact on the country’s chronic external deficit, though.

The improvement occurred amid a 6.7% year-over-year (y/y) increase in exports to EUR 24.55 billion in Q3, twice the pace of imports in the same quarter (+2.9% y/y) and also more than twice the pace of exports in H1 (+2.9% y/y).

Romania’s exports were driven, in Q3, by 24% y/y stronger exports of food and live animals (which contributed 1.8 percentage points to the 6.7% y/y overall advance of exports), 62% y/y higher exports of crude materials, inedible excluding fuels (2.5 pp contribution) and 4.6% stronger exports of transport equipment (mainly automobiles and parts of, which contributed 2.1pp due to sector’s important weight in total exports).

Romania’s imports, in turn, slowed to +2.9% year-over-year (y/y) in Q3 from +4.9% y/y in H1, reaching EUR 32.30 billion in the third quarter of the year.

Romania’s trade gap in 12 months to September 2025 reached EUR 34.4 billion (+7.4% y/y), as the 12-month rolling deficit has gradually eased from EUR 35.7 billion as of April 2025.

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