Trade balance deficit up to EUR 5bn in the first four months of 2019

The FOB/CIF trade balance deficit in the first four months of 2019 reached EUR 5.038 billion, by EUR 1.298 billion larger than in the similar period last year, the National Statistics Institute (INS) informs on Monday.

During January-April 2019, the FOB exports amounted to EUR 23.066 billion and the CIF imports to EUR 28.104 billion. Thus, exports grew by 3.8% and imports by 8.3%, as compared to the similar period last year.

In April, the FOB exports reached EUR 5.532 billion and CIF imports EUR 6.915 billion, resulting in a trade deficit of EUR 1.382 billion. As compared to April 2018, the exports in April 2019 were by 5.7% larger and imports by 10.6%.

The value of intra-EU28 trade in the first four months amounted to EUR 17.907 billion for shipments and EUR 21.131 billion for imports, i.e. 77.6% of overall exports and 75.2% of overall imports, INS informs.

The value of extra-EU28 exchanges was, during the mentioned interval, of EUR 5.159 billion for shipments and of EUR 6.972 billion for imports, i.e. 22.4% of total exports and 24.8% of total imports.