Growing trade deficit

Romania's trade deficit is deepening and, according to experts, is becoming a chronic problem for the national economy.

Sorin Iordan, 14.03.2025, 13:50

Romania’s trade deficit increased by 38.5% in January 2025 compared to the same period of last year and exceeded 40.8 billion euros, the National Institute of Statistics reported. The difference between the value of imports and exports increased as, although exports increased by 2.4%, imports increased by over 10%. Last year, Romania exported goods worth 92.6 billion Euros and imported goods worth 133.4 billion Euros. The Chief of Cabinet to the President of the National Institute of Statistics, Vladimir Alexandrescu, stated that Romania has two main trading partners, Germany and Italy, which together cover almost a third of our country’s total trade exchanges. In terms of imports, China is the country with which Romania has the largest trade deficit of all countries, 5.4% of the total. Alexandrescu stressed that a vulnerable sector remains trade in agricultural and food products, where Romania mainly exports raw materials and imports finished products.

Vladimir Alexandrescu: “In 2024, we had an export of 6.5 billion Euros against an import of 11.4 billion Euros, so a deficit of about 5 billion Euros, in a space where Romania, through what it naturally has, could have a surplus, provided that a mutation occurs in the content of these exchanges. We need to overcome the moment when we export unprocessed agricultural products and import processed agricultural products, because, by tradition, Romania has very, very great such possibilities.”

Alexandrescu added that Romania also registers a trade surplus and that the first place in this ranking is taken, surprisingly, by Great Britain, with 1.6% of the total, followed by the Republic of Moldova and the United States of America. The data presented by the statistics from Bucharest reconfirm the growing dependence of the national economy, especially on complementary imports, such as raw materials, materials or parts, the executive president of the National Association of Exporters and Importers of Romania, Mihai Ionescu also said. He aded that another problem is represented by the insufficient funds allocated by the executive to finance the presence of Romanian companies at international fairs and exhibitions.

Mihai Ionescu: “For this year, we have used up all the money to finance the presence of companies at international fairs and exhibitions. So, after June, we have no money left, and we had almost 100 international participations prepared, including in the Osaka World Expo. No company will leave. If this program is not urgently unblocked, we will have an even more drastic increase in the trade balance deficit.”

Ionescu underlined that it is essential that the government understands the need to allocate state aid or European funds to those areas that can support the process of reducing the trade balance deficit. (LS)