Romania’s trade deficit (chart) reached €35.7bn in the 12 months to April, equivalent to 10% of GDP, following a 21.3% year-on-year increase, according to data published by the National Institute of Statistics on June 10. The gap widened amid falling exports and rising imports, reversing the trend seen in 2024.

In April alone, goods exports fell by 5.2% y/y to €7.87bn, while imports edged up 0.4% y/y to €11.01bn, resulting in a monthly deficit of €2.69bn—22% wider than in the same month last year.

Cumulatively, exports over the 12-month period to April dropped by 0.5% y/y to €92.9bn, while imports rose 4.7% to €128.5bn. The resulting deficit of €35.7bn, or 10% of GDP measured against the most recent GDP figures as of March 2025, marks a deterioration from 8.9% of GDP one year ago in April 2024. The deficit peaked at 11.3% of GDP in April 2023, following surging energy import costs triggered by the war in Ukraine.

Romania’s trade imbalance has historically been wide, standing at 7.8% of GDP in the 12 months to April 2019, prior to the Covid-19 pandemic. The recent rise reflects structural dependencies on foreign supply in key sectors.

The largest contributor to the current trade deficit remains chemicals, accounting for 37% of the total in the year to April 2025, followed by raw processed materials excluding minerals (22%) and food (15%). Romania recorded trade surpluses in only two categories: beverages and tobacco (€1.3bn, or 4% of the total deficit) and inedible crude materials excluding fuels (€219mn, or 1%).

The strongest drivers of the annual deficit expansion were a 131% increase in net imports of “other manufactured goods,” contributing 5.4 percentage points to the overall rise, followed by a 26% increase in net imports of raw processed materials (5.4 pp) and a 40% increase in food imports (4.9 pp).

Net imports covered 7.5% of Romania’s total domestic demand for consumption and investment in the 12 months to March 2025—the highest such share since 2010, reflecting deepening external imbalances.