Romania’s trade gap widens by one-third y/y in April-May

Romania’s trade gap widens by one-third y/y in April-May

/ bne IntelliNews

By Iulian Ernst in Bucharest July 11, 2024

Romania’s trade deficit (goods only, chart) 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.

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.

While 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, imports' gained momentum from -3.2% y/y in Q1 as private consumption remains robust as non-food sales grew by double-digit annual rates (volume terms) in both Q1 and the April-May period.

On a broader perspective, the exports in the 12 months to May decreased by 2.9% y/y to €91.95bn, while imports contracted by 3.9% y/y to €122.13bn. The trade deficit thus narrowed slightly by 6.8% y/y to €30.2bn, which, in the general (although diminishing) inflationary context indicates certain improvement in the country’s external position that remains deep in the deficit area.

The trade gap (goods) to GDP ratio thus eased to 9.1% in the 12 months to May 2024, down from 11% calculated a year earlier.

#romania #export #import #trade #macro #bneChart

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