First half of this year: BiH exports increased

The Council of Ministers of BiH adopted the Analysis of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations on the foreign trade exchange of Bosnia and Herzegovina for the first six months of 2015, which states that the trade deficit decreased by 5.24 percent compared to the same period last year and amounted to 3.26 billion KM, reports the Patria News Agency.

According to the Information, the total volume of foreign trade in this period amounted to 12.02 billion KM, which is 189.6 million KM or 1.6 percent more compared to the same period last year. Goods worth 7.6 billion KM were imported, which is 0.06 percent more compared to the same period last year. At the same time, total exports amounted to 4.38 billion KM, recording a growth of 4.4 percent compared to the first six months of last year.

The coverage of imports by exports was 57.35 percent, which is 2.38 percent higher compared to the same period last year.

The European Union remains BiH's main foreign trade partner, participating with 64.9 percent in the total trade volume, followed by countries signatories to the "CEFTA 2006" agreement with 13.3 percent, and other countries with 21.8 percent.

In the first six months of this year, BiH exported the most to Germany, Italy, Croatia, Serbia, Austria, Slovenia, Turkey, Montenegro, Hungary, and Romania. Exports to these countries account for 76.6 percent of total exports.

The largest imports were from Germany, Italy, Serbia, Croatia, China, Russia, Slovenia, Turkey, Austria, and the USA. Imports from these countries account for 72.58 percent of total BiH exports.

Products that contributed the most to export growth in the first half of this year are beef - fresh or chilled, insulated wire, cables and other insulated electrical conductors, coke and semi-coke of coal, lignite coal or peat, retort carbon, hot-rolled wire of iron or non-alloy steel, and bars of iron or non-alloy steel, it was announced from the Council of Ministers of BiH.