Romania’s trade deficit stood at 5,67 billion euro in the first four months of 2007, up 65.8% compared to the same period last year, the National Statistics Institute-INS announced on Monday. It also announced the annual inflation rate for the month of May stood at 3.81%, up from the 3.77% reported by end of April.

According to INS data, exports in the first four months of the year rose to 9.29 billion euro, while imports reached 14.96 billion. The higher rise of exports than imports was influenced by the evolution of the goods exchanges within the EU.

Exports rose 9.1% compared to the same period last year, while imports grew 23.6%.

Related to the evolution of prices, the INS says services prices grew the fastest in May compared to the previous month (2.3%) due to higher rental, urban transport and utilities prices.