Imports of food products and live animals, up by 11.4% in 2019 | Progresiv

The increasing consumption on the Romanian market translates into increasing imports, most of them with high costs, given the depreciation of the national currency against the European one.

Only in the area of ​​food products and live animals, the data from the National Institute of Statistics (INS) indicates an increase of imports by 11.4%, to the value of 6.7 billion euros, which means almost 8% of the total imports made in 2019.

In addition to this category are imports of drinks and tobacco, where the growth was 3.8% in 2019 compared to 2018. Only in December, the value of imports of beverages and tobacco rose by 70 million euros, from 670 million euros at the end of November, to 740 million euros in December.

In this category, however, exports increased considerably. INS data indicates an increase of almost 32% in exports of beverages and tobacco, with a cumulative value of 1.11 billion euros.

Companies operating on the local market also exported food products and live animals. INS data indicates exports worth 4 billion euros at the end of 2019 in this category, which represents a share of 6.9% of total exports.

At the end of last year, total imports amounted to 86.2 billion euros, while total exports reached 69 billion euros. This means that Romania's trade deficit exceeded 17 billion euros in 2019, with more than two billion euros more than in 2018.