Romania’s exports of goods increased by 5.2 percent year-on-year in May to hit a second-highest all-time level of EUR 5.9 billion, but were outpaced by imports, government data showed on Tuesday.
In March, Romania’s exports reached for the first time in history the EUR 6 billion threshold, rising to EUR 6.1 billion.
According to National Institute of Statistics (INS), imports rose by 6.8 percent in May to 7.14 billion, and the trade deficit widened 14.9 percent to EUR 1.27 billion.
In the first five months of this year, exports increased by 8.8 percent year-on-year, to EUR 28.09 billion, and imports grew by 9.3 percent, to EUR 33.09 billion.
The five-month trade deficit rose by 12.3 percent year-on-year, to EUR 5 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.