Romania’s export map: Central Wallachia, Southern Transylvania and Western Counties are the export engines of the country

Romania has exported goods of almost EUR 40 billion in the first half of this year but only Central Wallachia, Transylvanian and the Western counties are really helping to deal with soaring imports.

According to fresh data from the National Institute of Statistics (INS), Bucharest alone has exported EUR 5.4 billion in goods during the first half of this year (13.5 percent of total exports), followed by the Timis and Arges counties (both EUR 3.3 billion), Arad (EUR 1.9 billion), Brasov (EUR 1.8 billion), Sibiu (EUR 1.6 billion), Dolj, Alba and Ilfov (EUR 1.3 billion) and Prahova (EUR 1.2 billion).

In the first half of this year, Romania has exported goods totaling EUR 39.9 billion, while imports rose to EUR 47.5 billion.

But official data show that Romania has only three major export engines: Central Wallachia (a triangle including the Capital city, its outskirts – Ilfov -, and the counties of Arges and Prahova), Southern Transylvania (including the industrialized counties of Brasov, Sibiu and Alba) and West (including the counties of Timis, Arad and Bihor, on the border with Hungary).

The first region accounts for 28 percent (EUR 11.2 billion) of Romania’s total exports, the second 11.8 percent (EUR 4.7 billion) and the third 15.4 percent (EUR 6.1 billion).

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These three regions had a share of 55.2 percent of Romania’s total exports in the first half of this year as they are sometimes specialized in some key-areas: automotive industry (Arges, Alba), and oil & gas industry (Prahova).

Larger trade deficit

Romania’s exports of goods increased by 9.7 percent year-on-year in the first eight months of this year up to EUR 45 billion, but were outpaced by imports which rose by 10.4 percent, government data recently showed.

According to National Institute of Statistics (INS), the trade deficit widened by 14 percent during the first eight months of this year up to EUR 8.98 billion.

In August, exports rose by 4.3 percent year-on-year to EUR 5.1 billion – the lowest monthly value in 2018 -, while imports increased by 9 percent to EUR 6.5 billion.

In March 2018, Romania’s exports reached for the first time in history the EUR 6 billion threshold, rising to EUR 6.1 billion.

Romania’s trade gap surged 30 percent in 2017 to EUR 12.96 billion, as the government adopted during the last few years a strategy of wage-led growth, stimulating household consumption and GDP growth rates.

But this model has generated larger fiscal and current account deficits and experts insist Romania should change the economic model in order to obtain real long-term economic and social development.