Balance of trade in auto sector tipped in favour of Romania

The collapse of new vehicle sales on the Romanian market and the skyrocketing of Automobile Dacia's exports turned Romania into a net exporter in the automotive sector in 2009, with a quarter of a million cars sold abroad. Over the course of last year auto imports to Romania fell by almost 55%, to nearly 106,000 units, whilst Dacia exports rose by a similar proportion, to more than 258,000 units. Considering an average price of 8,500 euros for the exported vehicles, the value of exports amounts to 2.2 billion euros, whilst that of vehicle imports exceeds 1.4 billion euros (considering an average price of 13,500 euros), resulting in an almost 800 million-euro surplus. France, on the other hand, the second-largest importer of Logan vehicles, announced a 6.7 billion-euro deficit in its foreign trade of new vehicles at the end of last year, after the deficit amounted to 4.8 billion euros in 2008. In order to limit a deepening of the deficit in this sector France announced a cut in scrappage bonuses for its car scrappage scheme from 1,000 euros in 2009 to 500 euros as of July 1st 2010.