Romania's foreign trade gap will reach EUR 18.5-19 billion this year, up from under EUR 17.3 bln in 2019, according to the head of the Romanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCIR) Mihai Daraban, local Agerpres reported.

The trade deficit in the rolling 12 months as of July was EUR 17.76 bln.

A deficit of EUR 19.0 bln this year would be the equivalent of a 10% year-on-year increase, after the 14% advance in 2019.

CCIR head came up with two initiatives for addressing the trade deficit widening. Firstly, Romania should abandon the paradigm of exports of goods and focus on exports of services instead.

"We have some economic strategy issues," he also said, explaining that "we believe that the energy sector, the manufacturing industry, and the food industry should be the national priorities and from here we need to start building. And the strategic sectors need to be served by infrastructure. We need to set our priorities at once."

andrei@romania-insider.com

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