Serbia’s overall external trade rose by 7.9 per cent in the January-August period compared to the same period of 2018, the State Statistical Office said.
The value of the country’s external trade amounted to 26.9 billion euro with 11.488 billion accounting for exports (a rise of 6.9 per cent) and 15.4 billion for imports (a rise of 8.7 per cent), a press release said adding that the deficit stands at 3.9 billion euro which is 14.5 per cent higher relative to the same period of 2018.
Industrial production rose by 0.5 per cent in August compared to the same month a year earlier and dropped by 1 per cent in the January-August period compared to the same period of 2018.
Industrial production showed growth in 13 production groups and a decline in 16, the Statistics Office said.
Vojvodina had the largest share in Serbia’s exports (34.2%), and Belgrade had the biggest share in imports (47.0%). The European Union Member States account for 63.5 per cent of the total trade. Serbia’s largest trading partner, individually by country, was Germany on both the import and export side. In the reporting period, Serbia exported goods worth 1.08 billion euro to Germany and imported 1.46 billion euro.
The second most important foreign trade partner is the CEFTA countries, with Serbia recording a surplus of 956.7 million euro in the first half of the year. CEFTA members exported goods worth 1.41 billion euro to Serbia and imported goods worth 456.3 million from Serbia. The export-import ratio is 309.7 per cent.
Serbia recorded the largest surplus in the trading with the countries from the region: Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and North Macedonia, as well as with Romania, Slovakia, Great Britain, Croatia, Bulgaria, Slovenia and Sweden.
Serbia had the largest deficit in trading with China and the Russian Federation, as well as Germany, Turkey, Poland, Hungary, the USA, France, Belgium, Ukraine, Armenia, Switzerland, Denmark, and Spain.
Source; Serbian Monitor
