Bulgaria's trade deficit rose to 3.32 billion levs ($1.78 billion/1.7 billion euro) in the first three months of 2022, compared with a gap of 1.53 billion levs in the first quarter of last year, the country's statistical office said on Thursday, quoting preliminary data.
Exports (FOB) in the January-March period increased 34% year-on-year to 20.96 billion levs, while imports (CIF) surged 41.3% to roughly 24.3 billion levs, the National Statistical Institute (NSI) said in a statement.
For the month of March alone, however, Bulgaria's trade gap narrowed to 856.1 million levs from 866.7 million levs in March 2021, as exports rose by an annual 53.44% to some 8.9 billion levs. Imports in the third month of 2022 grew 33.4% on the year to 8.94 billion levs.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)