Romania posts the biggest monthly exports in history of EUR 6.1 bln in March

Romania’s exports of goods increased by 6.6 percent year-on-year in March to hit a record high of EUR 6.1 billion, outpacing imports, government data showed on Thursday.

It was for the first time in history when Romania’s exports reached the EUR 6 billion threshold. The previous record was reached in November 2017, when Romania exported goods of EUR 5.79 billion.

According to National Institute of Statistics (INS), imports rose by 5.8 percent in March to 7.16 billion, and the trade deficit widened 1.6 percent to EUR 1.06 billion.

In the first quarter of this year, exports increased by 9.8 percent year-on-year, to EUR 16.99 billion, and imports grew by 10.8 percent, to EUR 19.7 billion.

The quarterly trade deficit rose by 18.1 percent year-on-year, to EUR 2.72 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.