Romania’s foreign trade gap widened by 62% year-on-year to EUR 1.26 billion in January, the statistics office - INS informed.

The exports increased by a disappointing 1.6% year-on-year, the weakest performance since April 2017, to EUR 5.51 billion. The imports, in contrast, surged by 9.2% year-on-year to EUR 6.77 billion.

The weak performance of the country’s exports come amid weakening outlook in Europe, Romania’s primary export market.

January was no exception: Romania’s imports have increased faster than its exports over the past year. The imports in the rolling 12 months ending January increased by 9.0% year-on-year (to EUR 83.4 billion) while the exports advanced by only 7.0% year-on-year to EUR 67.8 billion. Thus, the trade gap in the past 12 months ending January was EUR 15.6 billion, 18.9% more than one year before in January 2018.

editor@romania-insider.com

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