Romania’s exports of goods increased by 9.7 percent year-on-year in April to EUR 5.23 billion, outpacing imports for the second month in a row, government data showed on Monday.
In March, the exports of goods increased by 6.6 percent to hit a record high of EUR 6.1 billion – it was for the first time in history when Romania’s exports reached the EUR 6 billion threshold.
According to National Institute of Statistics (INS), imports rose by 7.3 percent in April to 6.25 billion, and the trade deficit declined by 3.5 percent to EUR 1.01 billion.
In the first four months of this year, exports increased by 9.7 percent year-on-year, to EUR 22.22 billion, and imports grew by 10 percent, to EUR 25.95 billion.
The January-April trade deficit rose by 11.3 percent year-on-year, to EUR 3.73 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.