September 9 (SeeNews) - Macedonia’s trade deficit narrowed by 25.2% on the year to $1.315 billion (906.4 million euro) in the January-July period, the Macedonian Statistics Office said on Wednesday.
Macedonia’s exports fell by 42% on the year to $1.45 billion through July, while imports decreased by 34.7% to $2.77 billion, the statistics office said in a statement.
Macedonia’s trade balance (in millions of U.S. dollars):
|
Jan-July'09 |
Jan-July'08 |
Exports |
1,454.4 |
2,489.2 |
Imports |
2,769.4 |
4,247.2 |
Balance |
-1,314.9 |
-1,758.0 |
The country of more than two million people exported mainly ferro-nickel, iron, steel products and clothes through July. It imported mostly crude oil, electricity, and motor vehicles.
Macedonia's biggest foreign markets are European Union member states (56.5%) and the Western Balkans (36.8%), while most of its imports originate in the EU (52.3%) and developing countries (26.5%). Macedonia’s main trading partners through July were Germany, Serbia, Greece, Italy and Russia with a combined share of 47.5% of the overall trade volume.
($=0.6893 euro)