PODGORICA (Montenegro), October 25 (SeeNews) – Montenegro’s foreign trade deficit increased by 13.2% on the year to 1.3 billion euro ($1.4 billion) in the first nine months of 2016, the country's statistics office said on Tuesday.
The country's exports increased by an annual 5.8% to 231.5 million euro in the January-September period, while imports jumped 12.03% to 1.5 billion euro, the office said in a statement on its website.
In September alone, the trade gap was 142.2 million euro, widening from 132.1 million euro last year, but shrinking from 168.1 million euro a month earlier.
Exports increased by 5.7% on the year and shrank by 1.6% month-on-month, to 28.9 million euro. Imports rose by 7.3% year-on-year to 171.1 million euro, but fell from 197.5 million euro a month earlier.
Montenegro's key foreign markets in the first nine months of the year were Serbia, which absorbed 53.6 million euro in exports, Hungary (31 million euro), and Bosnia (15.8 million euro). Imports into Montenegro came mainly from Serbia, which accounted for 345.9 million euro in imports, Germany (172.5 million euro), and China (142.7 million euro).
In 2015, Montenegro's foreign trade gap widened by 5% to 1.5 billion euro.
($=0.919258 euro)