Government must come up with new strategies to support exports in 2012 says Basescu

Newsroom 20/12/2011 | 13:17

Romania will not be efficient until it manages to balance exports with imports, said President Traian Basescu at a meeting with representatives of the National Association of Romanian Importers and Exporters (ANEIR), according to Mediafax. He added that exports have had an “extraordinary contribution” to reducing Romania’s current account deficit.

“Actually, this was one of our great vulnerabilities, greater that the budget deficit or the public debt. The current account deficit, the difference between exports and imports, is what brought us on the edge of collapse in 2009,” said the president.

Positive measures have been taken so far to support exports, thinks Basescu, but the government must come up with new strategies in 2012 although such measures don’t necessarily bring in votes. “Of course, it is very difficult to set such an objective for the politicians as this doesn’t mean higher salaries or pensions and talking about the balance of trade doesn’t bring votes,” he explained.

The balance of trade deficit is estimated to reach EUR 10 billion this year compared to EUR 9.5 billion last year. According to ANEIR estimations, in 2011 exports grew by 20 percent totaling EUR 45 billion, while imports went up by 17 percent to EUR 55 billion.

Simona Bazavan