Slight rebound in trade in March

Quarterly data is also negative. Imports plunged by 35.4 percent in Q1, to €8.56 bln, and exports decreased one fifth (19.4 percent) year-on-year, to €6.56 bln. Consequently, Romania’s trade deficit narrowed 60.8 percent, to €1.996 bln. In this year’s first three months, Romania’s exports to the other 26 countries in the European Union tumbled 15 percent year-on-year, to €4.92 bln, while imports from other EU members plunged 32.8 percent, to €6.3 bln.

However, compared to February, exports soared 23 percent in March, while imports rose 8.4 percent. Apparently, this improvement could be the signal of an upward trend in Romania’s trade, but specialists in the field deny this possibility.
“March was an exception. We thought things would pick up but we received the data for April and realized that the situation is as dark as before,” the President of the National Association of Romanian Exporters and Importers (ANEIR), Mihai Ionescu, told Business Standard.