Romanian trade deficit widened to EUR 1.89 billion in October 2018 from EUR 1.33 billion in the same month the previous year. It was the largest trade gap since October 2008, as imports rose more than exports. Imports jumped 16.1 percent year-on-year to EUR 8.23 billion, as purchases rose from both the EU countries (12.9 percent) and countries outside the EU (26.1 percent). Meanwhile, exports went up at a softer 10.0 percent to EUR 6.34 billion, as sales to the EU countries grew by 12.7 percent and that to countries outside the EU edged up 1.8 percent. Considering the first ten months of the year, the trade gap increased to EUR 11.85 billion from EUR 10.23 billion in the corresponding period 2017. Balance of Trade in Romania averaged -631.38 EUR Million from 1992 until 2018, 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 -1670.00 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 -1046.00 in 12 months time. In the long-term, the Romania Balance of Trade is projected to trend around -1400.00 EUR Million in 2020, according to our econometric models.