PODGORICA (Montenegro), July 25 (SeeNews) – Montenegro’s trade deficit increased by 7.3% on the year to 893.9 million euro ($1.05 billion) in the first six months of 2017, the country's statistical office said on Tuesday.
Exports grew by an annual 14.4% to 166.7 million euro in the January-June period, while imports rose 8.4% to 1.1 billion euro, the statistical office said in a statement.
In June alone, Montenegro's trade gap widened to 187.3 million euro from 169.1 million euro a year earlier. On a monthly comparison basis, the deficit increased by 3.6%.
June exports dropped to 24.98 million euro from 30.5 million euro last year, and from 28.8 million euro a month earlier. Imports totalled 212.3 million euro, up 6.3% year-on-year and 1.3% month-on-month.
Montenegro's key export destinations in the first six months of the year were Serbia (30 million euro), Bosnia and Herzegovina (22 million euro) and Hungary (16.5 million euro). Imports into the country came mainly from Serbia (229.6 million euro), China (98.2 million euro) and Germany (91.1 million euro).
In 2016, Montenegro's trade deficit widened by 13.7% to 1.733 billion euro.
($=0.854279 euro)