PODGORICA (Montenegro), April 25 (SeeNews) – Montenegro’s trade deficit increased by 15.9% on the year to 369.8 million euro ($402.5 million) in the first quarter of 2017, the country's statistical office said on Tuesday.
The country's exports jumped by an annual 39.3% to 81.8 million euro in the January-March period, while imports rose 19.6% to 451.6 million euro, the office said in a statement on its website.
In March alone, Montenegro's trade gap widened by 17.6% on the year, reaching 165.3 million euro. On a monthly comparison basis, the deficit widened 29.7%. March exports increased by 56.9% on the year and by 20.6% month-on-month, to 31.5 million euro. Imports totalled 196.8 million euro, up 22.5% year-on-year and 28.1% month-on-month.
Montenegro's key export destinations in the first two months of the year were Serbia (14.8 million euro), Bosnia and Herzegovina (11.5 million euro) and Hungary (8 million euro), while imports into the country came mainly from Serbia (95.2 million euro), China (42.9 million euro) and Germany (38.7 million euro).
In 2016, Montenegro's foreign trade deficit widened by 13.7% to 1.733 billion euro.
($=0.920821 euro)