Romania’s trade gap widens by one-third y/y in April-May
<p>Romania’s trade deficit (goods only) widened by nearly 33% y/y in April-May, as exports contracted by 2.1% y/y while imports increased by 5.3% y/y, according to data published by the statistics office INS.</p>

<p>The short-term dynamics reflect the industry’s modest performance and the robust private consumption (retail sales), while from a broader perspective, the country’s external balance is slightly improving after the energy (natural gas, crude oil) price shock in 2022/2023 while remaining deep in the deficit area.</p>

<p>While the exports’ modest performance is not something new (-3.4% y/y in Q1) and is in line with the modest performance of industry across the whole of Europe, the imports gain momentum from -3.2% y/y in Q1 as the private consumption remains robust as the non-food sales grew by double-digit annual rates (volume terms) in both Q1 and April-May period.</p>

<p>On a broader perspective, the exports in the twelve months to May decreased by 2.9% y/y to EUR 91.95 billion, while the imports contracted by 3.9% y/y to EUR 122.13 billion.</p>

<p>The trade deficit thus narrowed slightly by 6.8% y/y to EUR 30.2 billion, which, in the general (although diminishing) inflationary context, indicates certain improvement in the country’s external position that remains deep in the deficit area.&nbsp;</p>

<p>The trade gap (goods) to GDP ratio thus eased to 9.1% in the twelve months to May 2024, down from 11% calculated a year earlier.</p>

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

<p><em>(Photo source: <a href="https://www.dreamstime.com/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Prasit Rodphan/Dreamstime.com</a>)</em></p>