BUCHAREST, Feb. 11 (Xinhua) -- Romania's foreign trade deficit widened by more than 2.17 billion euros (2.45 billion U.S. dollars), to 15.13 billion euros in 2018, showed the latest data with the National Institute of Statistics (INS) released on Monday.

According to the INS, the FOB exports increased by 8.1 percent, year on year, to a total of 67.732 billion euros, while the CIF imports went up by 9.6 percent to 82.865 billion euros.

Imports have been rising since 2011, due to an increase in consumption and the input needs of export-oriented industrial activity, according to local analysts.

Romania exports mostly machinery and transport equipment, raw materials, and miscellaneous manufactured articles like textiles and footwear, while it imports machinery and transport equipment, raw materials, chemicals and fuels.

In 2018, machinery and transport equipment accounted for 47.3 percent and 38 percent of the total export and import respectively.

More than 76.7 percent of exports and 74.7 percent of imports were with European Union members, with Germany, Italy, Hungary and France being the most important trading partners.

Foreign Trade corresponds to over three-quarters of Romania's Gross domestic product (GDP) and the trade balance of the eastern European country recorded an averaged deficit of 560.6 million U.S. dollars from the year of 1990, according to international statistics. (1 euro = 1.13 U.S. dollars)