Romania’s Exports

In spite of the economic crisis, Romania reported a notable performance last year. The National Statistics Institute has announced that exports reached an all-time high of close to 50 billion euros, five times more than the country’s Communist-era record. Experts warn however that the limited range of Romanian exports are a weakness. Much of last year’s exports was accounted for by cars, transport equipment and other manufactured goods. Economic analyst Aurelian Dochia explains:

Leyla Cheamil, 11.02.2014, 13:24

“There are several sectors, or even several large companies that provide most of Romania’s exported goods, and this is obviously a source of vulnerability. If, for instance, the car market saw a downward trend, our exports and implicitly our economy would be seriously affected. So a greater diversity of the sectors and companies with good export performances would be desirable.”

Romania continues to depend on its European partners, particularly on Eurozone countries, although lately some of its exports have been channeled outside the EU as well. Analyst Aurelian Dochia says that next year the Romanian exports will remain closely tied to the developed economies in Europe:

“I believe we should wait for another month, at least, before we can make predictions in this respect. We should see the data for January and February, because we have seen before slow-down periods followed by a vigorous recovery. It is the situation in Europe that will largely shape our export performance in 2014, and if Europe’s economy recovers, Romania’s exports are likely to rise this year. Otherwise, the weaknesses noticed in the last two months of 2013 risk carrying on throughout 2014.”

On the other hand, the gap between exports and imports, the trade deficit, has narrowed significantly since 2012. Experts believe that is due to the growth of the Romanian economy last year by 2.8%, one of the highest growth rates in the European Union.