Romanian trade deficit widened to EUR 1.23 billion in March 2019 from EUR 1.06 billion in the same month the previous year. Year-on-year, imports rose 2.7 percent to EUR 7.36 billion, as purchases grew mainly from the EU countries (4.2 percent). Meanwhile, exports edged up 0.4 percent to EUR 6.13 billion, as sales to the EU countries were up 2.5 percent while those to countries outside the EU shrank 6.4 percent. Considering the first three months of 2019, the trade gap increased to EUR 3.64 billion from EUR 2.74 billion in the corresponding period a year earlier. Balance of Trade in Romania averaged -635.64 EUR Million from 1992 until 2019, reaching an all time high of 137.60 EUR Million in February of 1996 and a record low of -2542.10 EUR Million in September of 2008.
Balance of Trade in Romania is expected to be -1330.00 EUR Million by the end of this quarter, according to Trading Economics global macro models and analysts expectations. Looking forward, we estimate Balance of Trade in Romania to stand at -990.00 in 12 months time. In the long-term, the Romania Balance of Trade is projected to trend around -1620.00 EUR Million in 2020, according to our econometric models.