October 9 (SeeNews) - Macedonia’s trade deficit narrowed by 26.9% on the year to $1.493 billion (1.013 billion euro) in the January-August period, the Macedonian Statistics Office said on Friday.
Macedonia’s exports fell by 40.8% on the year to $1.69 billion through August, while imports decreased by 34.1% to $3.18 billion, the statistics office said in a statement.
Macedonia’s trade balance (in billions of U.S. dollars):
|
|
Jan-Aug'09 |
Jan-Aug'08 |
| Exports |
1.686 |
2.782 |
| Imports |
3.179 |
4.825 |
| Balance |
-1.493 |
-2.043 |
The country of more than two million people exported mainly ferro-nickel, iron, steel products, clothes and lubricants through August. It imported mostly crude oil, electricity and motor vehicles.
Macedonia's biggest foreign markets are European Union member states, accounting for 56.2% of its exports, and the Western Balkans, with 37.2%. Most of its imports originate in the EU (51.7%) and developing countries (26.9%). Macedonia’s main trading partners through August were Germany, Serbia, Greece, Italy and Russia with a combined share of 46.8% of the overall trade volume.
($=0.6788 euro)