Romania Posts 6th Largest 5-Mo Trade Gap In EU

Non-seasonally adjusted figures showed Romania’s trade deficit for the first five months shrank to EUR3.7 billion from EUR9.1 the year earlier, but data showed exports and imports for the January-June period were 21% and 36% weaker on the year, respectively.

In June, seasonally adjusted data indicated Romania’s trade gap narrowed to 0.2% from a deficit of 0.3% in May, fueled by a 7.3% increase in exports. Romanian imports fell 3.8% on the month in June.

The European nations’ trade deficit shrank to EUR4.3 billion in June, compared to EUR7.2 billion in May and EUR19.3 billion in June 2008.

In the January-May period, Germany posted the biggest trade surplus in the EU27 bloc, of EUR46.3 billion, followed by Ireland (+EUR15.6 billion) and the Netherlands (+EUR13.8 billion).

At the opposite side, the U.K. reported the sharpest trade deficit (-EUR38 billion in January-May), followed by France (-EUR24.4 billion), Spain (-EUR20.7 billion), Greece (-EUR11.6 billion) and Portugal (-EUR6.8 billion).