January 9 (SeeNews) - Romania's trade gap widened to 8.77 billion euro ($8.38 billion) in the first 11 months of 2016 from 7.19 billion euro in the same period of 2015, as imports grew faster than exports, the office of national statistics, INS, said on Monday.
Exports rose by 4.8% on the year to 53 billion euro, while imports increased by 6.9% to 61.8 billion euro in the eleven-month period, INS said in a statement.
Machinery and transport equipment accounted for 47.2% of total exports and 38% of imports, while other manufactured goods made up 32.6% of Romanian exports and 31.2% of imports.
The European Union was Romania's main trading partner in the first 11 months of last year, providing 75.4% of Romania's imports and absorbing 77.3% of the country's exports.
Romania's trade gap widened by 2.3 billion euro to 8.36 billion euro in 2015.
($= 0.9423 euro)