The Romanian economy is heading to a historical record on exports this year. The automotive industry, the processing industry, agriculture and software are some of the main sectors that will lead to the exceedance of the EUR 70 billion threshold, reads an analysis on the international commerce, conducted by Moneycorp.
Last year, Romania exported goods and services worth over EUR 67.7 billion, up by 81.3% as against 2010 (EUR 37.3 billion) and 8.1% more than in 2017. The forecast on the 2019 evolution shows a more moderate increase as against the one in 2018, below 7% towards the level of EUR 72.4 billion.
According to the above-mentioned sources, the automotive sector, with Dacia Renault, Ford and the auto parts producers in the pipeline, has the chance to be the main vector of growth of the exports this year, after in 2018 it provided 18.8% of the volume (EUR 12.7 billion), on the rise by around 13 percent compared to the previous year.
Exports of cars, electrical equipment and other devices counted for 28.7% of the total exports last year, up by 9.1% as against the previous year.
Exports of metals and metal products (iron, steel, cast iron), software, fuel sector, tires, furniture, tobacco industry and other final products in the manufacturing sector will also top the exports this year.
The analysis also says that over 22,000 companies are currently carrying out export activities in Romania, up by 5.3% as against 2013. Most of them are in commerce (8,540), processing industry (7,875), transport/storage (1,107) and agriculture (1.067). Most of these companies (14,500) are Romanian owned, over 5,000 are foreign companies and 2,500 are joint firms.
The foreign companies based in Romania are exporting on the average products and services worth EUR 5 million, while the Romanian-owned companies are reporting an average of EUR 500,000.
The MoneyCorp also says that the value of the Romania’s commercial deficit would surpass the level of EUR 17.7 billion this year, while the country’s imports are estimated to EUR 90 billion.