August 9 (SeeNews) - Romania's first-half trade gap widened to 4.46 billion euro ($4.95 billion) from 3.29 billion euro in the same period last year, as imports grew faster than exports, the country's statistics office, INS, said on Tuesday.
Exports rose by an annual 4.2% to 28.1 billion euro in January-June, while imports increased 7.7% to 32.6 billion euro, INS said in a statement.
Machinery and transport equipment accounted for 48.2% of exports and 37.7% of imports, while other manufactured goods made up 33.1% of exports and 31.4% of imports.
The European Union was Romania's main trading partner in the first half of the year, accounting for 77.8% of imports to the country and for 75.5% of its exports.
In June alone, exports rose 3.7% on the year, while imports were up 2.7%.
In 2015, Romania's trade gap widened by 2.3 billion euro to 8.36 billion euro.
($= 0.9016 euro)