November 26 (SeeNews) - Montenegro’s trade deficit expanded by 14.8% on the year to 1.812 billion euro ($2.06 billion) in the first ten months of 2018, the country's statistical office said on Monday.
Exports grew by an annual 6% to 324.4 million euro in January-October, while imports rose 13.4% to 1.89 billion euro, the statistical office said in a statement.
In October alone, Montenegro's trade gap widened to 212.5 million euro from 171 million euro in the prior-year month. On a monthly comparison basis, the deficit widened by 21.3% in October.
October exports went up to 33.3 million euro from 32.2 million euro last year and from 30.5 million euro a month earlier. Imports totalled 245.9 million euro, up 21% year-on-year and 19.5% month-on-month.
Montenegro's key export destinations in the first ten months of the year were Serbia (73.1 million euro), Hungary (40.9 million euro) and Bosnia and Herzegovina (25 million euro). Imports into the country came mainly from Serbia (411.8 million euro), China (220.1 million euro) and Germany (189.5 million euro).
In 2017, Montenegro's trade gap expanded by 11.3% to 1.932 billion euro.
($ = 0.879727 euro)