May 25 (SeeNews) - Montenegro’s trade deficit expanded by 12.3% on the year to 593.2 million euro ($694.8 million) in the first four months of 2018, the country's statistical office said on Friday.
Exports grew by an annual 14.3% to 129.2 million euro in January-April, while imports rose 12.7% to 722.4 million euro, the statistical office said in a statement.
In April alone, Montenegro's trade gap widened to 185.1 million euro from 181.5 million euro in the prior-year month. On a monthly comparison basis, the deficit expanded by 1.8% in April.
April exports rose to 35.3 million euro from 30.8 million euro last year, but declined from 38 million euro a month earlier. Imports totalled 220.3 million euro, up 4.7% year-on-year and 0.1% month-on-month.
Montenegro's key export destinations in the first four months of the year were Serbia (27.8 million euro), Hungary (15.6 million euro) and Bosnia and Herzegovina (11 million euro). Imports into the country came mainly from Serbia (126.7 million euro), China (61.3 million euro) and Germany (54.4 million euro).
In 2017, Montenegro's trade gap expanded by 11.3% to 1.932 billion euro.
($ = 0.853749 euro)