Eurostat: Significant fall in Romania's Jan. - April trade deficit
Romania's trade deficit January through April 2009 fell to 2.9 billion euros, from a negative balance of 7.3 billion euros in the same period last year, show figures published on Friday by the European Statistical Office of the European Communities (Eurostat).Whereas Romania's exports fell 20 percent to 8.7 billion euros in the first four months of 2009, from 10.9 billion euros over January-April 2008, imports decreased 36 percent to 11.7 billion euros, compared to 18.2 billion euros registered between January - April 2008.
Across the European Union, the trade balance deficit narrowed to 6.8 billion euros in May 2009 from 8.2 billion euros in April. EU exports inched down one percent in May 2009 from April, whilst imports fell 3.2 percent.
In Romania's particular case, according to centralized data from the National Statistics Institute (INS), FOB exports amounted to 9.505.1 billion lei (2.26 billion euros) in May 2009, whereas CIF imports stood at 12.459 billion lei (2.974 billion euros).
Analyzed over a longer reference period, between January 1 - May 31, 2009, FOB exports were 46.672 billion lei (11.006 billion euros), while CIF imports amounted to 62.031 billion lei (14.635.5 billion euros). Compared to the similar period of 2008, exports decreased 8.8 percent when expressed in lei (the decrease was 21.1 percent for values expressed in euros) and imports fell 26.6 percent for values expressed in lei (36.5 percent for values in euros).
The FOB-CIF trade deficit over the January 1 - May 31, 2009 period was 15.358 billion lei (3.286 billion euros), by 18.034 billion lei (5.479 billion euros) less than between January 1 - May 31, 2008, Agerpres informs.