Be the first to comment!Malta registered a trade deficit of €102.8 million in November
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Preliminary figures show that Malta registered a trade deficit of €102.8 million in November 2016, down by €91.7 million when compared to the corresponding month of 2015, when it stood at €194.5 million, the National Statistics Office said today.
Imports decreased by €13.6 million, while exports increased by €78.2 million. The decrease in the value of imports was primarily due to miscellaneous manufactured articles (€7.0 million) and machinery and transport equipment (€4.2 million). On the exports side, food (€41.8 million) and mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials (€31.4 million) accounted for the main increase.
During the first eleven months last year, the trade deficit widened by €298.5 million when compared to the corresponding period of 2015, reaching €2,708.4 million. Both imports and exports show increases of €308.5 million and €9.9 million respectively.
Higher imports were mainly due to machinery and transport equipment, which increased by €471.3 million. This was partly outweighed by decreases in mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials (€55.4 million), semi-manufactured goods (€42.3 million), miscellaneous manufactured articles (€42.0 million), and chemicals (€39.0 million).
The increase in the value of exports was mainly triggered by chemicals (€557.4 million). This was partly outweighed by decreases of €514.3 million in mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials, and €23.7 million in machinery and transport equipment.
Malta’s trade imports from the European Union reached €2,888.9 million, or 48.0 per cent of total imports. There was a decrease of €308.4 million in imports from euro area countries when compared to the same period of 2015.
Main increases and decreases in imports were registered from the Caribbean and Bahamas Islands (€601.6 million) and Turkey (€146.7 million) respectively.
On the export side, the main increase was directed to the United States of America (€600.4 million), whereas Africa (€382.2 million) registered the highest decrease.
