First three months: Export growth and import decline

The Council of Ministers of BiH took note of the Analysis by the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations on Bosnia and Herzegovina's foreign trade exchange for the first three months of 2015, which states that in this period there was an export growth, import decline and a reduction in the trade deficit, which amounts to 1.44 billion KM, and has decreased by 122.15 million KM compared to the same period in 2014, reports the BiH news agency Patria.

According to the analysis by the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations, in the first three months of this year, goods worth 3.56 billion KM were imported, which is 1.85 percent less compared to the first quarter of the previous year. At the same time, total exports amounted to 2.12 billion KM, representing a growth of 54.89 million KM or 2.66 percent compared to the same period of the previous year. Thus, the coverage of imports by exports was 59.47 percent, which is 2.62 percent higher compared to the same period last year.

The European Union remains our main foreign trade partner, so the EU participates with 64.03 percent in the total volume of trade, followed by countries signatories to the "CEFTA 2006" agreement with 13.26 percent, while 22.71 percent relates to other countries. In the first three months of this year, Bosnia and Herzegovina exported the most to Germany, Italy, Croatia, and Serbia, and an export growth to the Republic of Turkey of 73.05 percent was recorded compared to the same period in 2014. At the same time, the most imports were from Germany, Italy, Serbia, Croatia, China, and Russia. Thus, we had the largest deficit in this period with China, Russia, Serbia, and Croatia.  

In the first three months of this year, the most exported items were aluminum, electricity, car seats, footwear with outer soles of rubber, plastic and leather, and sunflower oil, corn, hot-rolled wire of iron or non-alloy steel - insulated wire, and the export of agricultural products also increased by 29.06 percent. The most imported items were petroleum oils, other than crude, and passenger cars and oil.