Chart of the week: Romania’s trade balance dives further in the deficit area

Romania's trade deficit almost tripled in the last five years (2018 versus 2013) reaching its highest level after 2008. The rise in imports, driven by strong domestic demand has significantly outpaced the evolution of exports, which has slowed down amid lower economic growth in Europe. Imbalances are likely to continue growing this year, January data shows.

Romania’s foreign trade gap widened by 62% year-on-year to EUR 1.26 billion in January. Thus, the trade gap in the 12 months ending January was EUR 15.6 billion, 18.9% higher than in the year ending January 2018 and some 7.8% of GDP. The data is reported under FOB/CIF terms by the National Institute of Statistics (INS) and shows that the local producers do not cope with the rising demand.