UPDATE 1 - Albania's 9-mo Trade Gap Widens 25% Y/Y to 1.6 Bln Euro

October 30 (SeeNews) - Albania's trade balance through September showed a deficit of 197.12 billion leks ($2.31 billion/1.6 billion euro), up 25% from a year earlier, the National Statistics Institute (INSTAT) said on Tuesday.

Exports in the first nine months rose 27.6% on the year, while imports were 25.7% higher, INSTAT said in its monthly trade balance report.

The European Union member states accounted for 82.37% of all Albanian exports through September, while imports from the 27-member bloc made up 59.8% of the imports total.

The country's main trading partners in the nine-month period were Italy and Greece. A total of 26.63% of all imports originated in Italy and 14.83% came from Greece. Italy attracted 67.14% of Albania's exports in the year's first nine months of the year, while Greece accounted for 8.71%.

Textiles and footwear were Albania's main export items with a share of 48.32% of the total.

Construction materials and metals ranked second with 16.12%, followed by minerals and fuels with 15.8%.

The impoverished southeastern European country imported mostly machines and spare parts, which made up 20.73% of all imports. Construction materials and metals were the second biggest group of imports with 16.7% of the total, followed by food, beverages and tobacco with 16.26%.

ALBANIA TRADE BALANCE (in billions of leks):

Albania's trade deficit increased by 12.8% to 221.501 billion leks last year.

(1 euro = 122.763 Albanian leks)