Romania’s exports up 3.9% in Q1 after hitting new record in March

Romania’s exports soared by 20.1% in March compared to the same month last year, reaching a new all-time record of EUR 6.53 bln.

The performance was partly helped by low base effects one year after the lockdown froze the global supply chains in the first quarter of 2021, particularly in March.

For the whole first quarter of the year, the exports rose by 3.9% year-on-year to EUR 17.72 bln. The 6.5% increase in the export of transport means (automobiles, mainly), which accounted for nearly half of total exports in the quarter, made a critical contribution of some 3.2pp to the overall 3.9% year-on-year advance.

Meanwhile, the imports increased faster than exports: only marginally (+20.6% yoy) to EUR 8.78 bln in March but nearly twice as fast as exports (+7.1% yoy) to EUR 23.05 bln in the whole quarter. Again, the category of transport means (not limited to automobiles) - 37% of the total imports in Q1 - contributed a significant 3.4pp to the overall 7.1% yoy rise of imports.

The robust rise of imports, supported by buoyant retail sales (+4.1% yoy in Q1 after a record 9.1% yoy increase in March), resulted in a record trade gap as well: EUR 5.33 bln in Q1, 19.3% more than that in the first quarter of 2020 when the trade gap also marked a robust (+20% yoy) advance.

Notably, the imports generated by the domestic demand for investments under the Recovery and Resilience Fund (RRF) have not begun yet, but they will predictably further push up the country’s trade gap.

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