Romania’s trade gap hits 10% of GDP in year to April after 21% y/y advance
<p>Romania’s exports in goods contracted by 5.2% y/y to EUR 7.87 billion in April, while the imports edged up by 0.4% y/y to EUR 11.01 billion, resulting in a trade gap of EUR 2.69 billion – 22% wider compared to the same month of 2024, according to data published by the statistics office INS.</p>

<p>In the 12 months to April, exports contracted by 0.5% y/y to EUR 92.9 billion, while imports rose by 4.7% y/y to EUR 128.5 billion, resulting in a trade deficit of EUR 35.7 billion – up 21.3% y/y and 10% of the GDP (latest available 12-month GDP, as of March 2025).&nbsp;</p>

<p>The deficit-to-GDP ratio thus increased from 8.9% in April 2024, but it peaked at 11.3% as of April 2023, reflecting the expensive natural gas imports after the war in Ukraine began. Romania’s trade deficit has, however, always been wide: it was 7.8% of GDP in 12 months to April 2019, just before the Covid-19 crisis.</p>

<p>As regards the structure of Romania’s trade deficit, the bulk is formed by chemicals (37% of the total deficit in 12 months to April 2025), raw processed materials other than minerals (22%), and food (15%). The sole categories where Romania posted trade surpluses were those of beverages and tobacco (EUR 1.3 billion, or 4% of the trade deficit in 12 months to April 2025) and inedible crude materials except fuels (EUR 219 million or 1% of the trade deficit).</p>

<p>When it comes to the dynamics of the trade gap, the largest part of the 21% increase was caused by 131% larger net imports of goods under the category of “other manufactured goods” (5.4 percentage points contribution), 26% larger net imports of raw processed materials (5.4 pp) and 40% y/y more net imports of food (4.9 pp).&nbsp;</p>

<p>Out of Romania’s total domestic demand for consumption and investments in 12 months to March 2025, the net imports covered 7.5%, the highest ratio since 2010.</p>

<p><em>iulian@romania-insider.com</em></p>

<p><em>(Photo source: <a href="https://www.dreamstime.com/">Andreykuzmin/Dreasmtime.com</a>)</em></p>