Romania is a large importer of agri-food products from three important countries, namely Germany, Hungary and Poland, but, together with these products, we also import inflation, the chairman of the National Institute of Statistics (INS), Tudorel Andrei, said on Tuesday, at a conference dedicated to the financial and banking industry within the „Bucharest Leaders’ Summit: Emerging challenges of the future”, Agerpres reports.

According to Andrei, in October 2022 compared to October 2021, Germany had an inflation of over 20%, Poland 22%, the Netherlands 14% and Hungary 40%. Romania had a high inflation in agri-food products, over 20%, and this fact is explainable precisely because we import raw materials and food products from exactly those countries that have recorded high inflation in Europe.

Among the most relevant examples, Tudorel Andrei listed apple juice, fish, sour cream, tomato broth.

„Practically, the share of imports in domestic consumption is almost 95%. (…) Unfortunately, there are imbalances that have been created over the course of 30 years. These are imbalances that can be mitigated very hard in a short period of time,” Andrei said.

The INS president added that he recently published a work at the Romanian Academy Publishing House about Romania’s foreign trade in agri-food products.

„Through an analysis based on statistical figures, statistical figures that shape Romania’s economy and foreign trade over a long period of time, and which show us this great imbalance between what we produce, what we process, what we export, what we import. Unfortunately, the message is not positive from the point of view of the numbers, and these imbalances cannot be eliminated in a short period of time. I hope that there will be a debate at the level of the public space, at the level of civil society on this issue, since the performance of Romanian agriculture is measured by the performance in foreign trade with agri-food products,” the INS head also said.

Agerpres