October 10 (SeeNews) - Romania's trade gap widened to 6.13 billion euro ($6.82 billion) in the first eight months of the year, from 4.79 billion euro in the same period last year, as imports grew faster than exports, the country's statistics office, INS, said on Monday.
Exports rose by 4% on the year to 37.4 billion euro, while imports increased 6.8% to 43.5 billion euro, INS said in a statement.
Machinery and transport equipment accounted for 47.2% of exports and 37.5% of imports, while other manufactured goods made up 32.8% of exports and 31.2% of imports.
The European Union was Romania's main trading partner in the eight months through August, accounting for 77.1% of the country's imports and 75% of its exports.
In August alone, Romania's exports rose by 13.4% on the year, while imports increased by 14.4%. This is the highest monthly increase of exports and imports since June 2015, when exports grew by 12.4% and imports grew by 14.4%.
Romania's trade gap widened by 2.3 billion euro to 8.36 billion euro last year.
($= 0.899 euro)