October 10 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria's trade gap widened to 5.91 billion levs ($3.47 billion/3.02 billion euro) in the first eight months of the year, from 2.62 billion levs in the same period of 2017, the country’s statistical office, NSI, said on Wednesday, quoting preliminary data.
Exports declined 1.5% on the year, reaching 35.1 billion levs in the January-August period, while imports rose by an annual 7.2% to 41.0 billion levs, NSI said in a statement.
In August alone, Bulgaria's exports added 0.6% year-on-year to 4.6 billion levs, while imports edged down 0.1% to 5.0 billion levs.
Details follow (in millions of levs):
|
Jan-Aug 2018 |
Jan-Aug 2017 |
Aug 2018 |
Aug 2017 |
Exports (FOB) |
35078.4 |
35613.0 |
4613.0 |
4586.3 |
Imports (CIF) |
40993.4 |
38231.4 |
4973.0 |
4978.2 |
Balance |
-5915.0 |
-2618.4 |
-360.0 |
-391.9 |
source: NSI
Bulgaria ended 2017 with a trade deficit of 4.63 billion levs, up by 615 million levs compared to 2016, according to final data released by NSI on Wednesday.
Exports increased by an annual 15.7% to 54.6 billion levs in 2017, while imports added 15.7% to 59.2 billion levs.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)