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Romanian trade deficit reached EUR 3.1 bln in first six months
Bucharest Daily News – Aug 18-05

BUCHAREST – Romanian exports went up 16.6 pc reaching EUR 10.5 bln while imports were situated at the EUR 13.6 bln value, informed Iuliu Winkler, Deputy Minister for Trade, in a press conference dedicated to the evaluation of results obtained by the Ministry of Economy and Trade (MEC) in the first half of the year.


The strong points of Romanian exports were agricultural products, which went up 282 pc as compared with same period in 2004, fuels which went up 63 per cent, airplane components and cars which went up 193 pc and 54 per cent respectively. Different textiles and lohn products decreased somewhat in the weight of exports reaching a value of EUR 1.7 bln. Romania’s imports grew 22.9 per cent compared to H1 of 2004 and taking into consideration import of insurance services and international transport which added EUR 4.2 bln to the EUR 13.6 value of goods. The deficit amounted to EUR 3.07 bln, making for a negative balance of trade.


Trade relations with the Russian Federation went up 92 per cent and the resulting deficit makes for approximately 40 per cent of Romania’s commercial deficit. Energy and natural gas imports have the greatest weight in the imports from Russia. “The trade deficit with Russia is part of what we call the structural deficit of Romania” said Iuliu Winkler. He added “if we would not import energy from Russia we would import from somewhere else” explaining that energy import is vital to the economy.


Italy – Romania’s main trading partner


Italy is Romania’s main trading partner in what concerns both imports and exports. Almost 20 per cent of exported goods have as a destination Italy while 16.4 per cent of imports come from there. This fact ensures that one million Romanians make a living, holding jobs at different companies at home and in Italy said Iuliu Winkler at the conference.


Italian companies are also the biggest contributors to the fund raise initiated by Romanian commercial attaché’s abroad, with the purpose of helping victims of the floods. Along with the contributions of the MEC personnel, foreign companies have contributed so far with ROL 2 bln Winkler said. Second place as trading partner is held by Germany with 14 pc of exports and 13.8 per cent of imports. With its 8 per cent, Turkey takes third place in regard to exports. Russia also takes the lowest step of the podium with 7.8 per cent of imports.


In the overall classification on regions the EU dominates as Romania’s trading partner receiving 68.8 per cent of exports and being the source of 63 per cent of the imports.