For six months, BiH's merchandise trade worth 12.22 billion KM, export growth to EU countries recorded

The Council of Ministers of BiH adopted the Analysis of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations on Bosnia and Herzegovina's foreign trade exchange for the first half of 2016, which states further export growth and a decrease in the trade deficit compared to the same period last year, reports Patria.

In the first six months of this year, BiH's total merchandise trade amounted to 12.22 billion KM, which is 184.9 million KM more than in the same period last year. Goods worth 7.71 billion KM were imported, which is 0.75 percent more than in the same period last year, while total exports amounted to 4.51 billion KM, an increase of 127.27 million KM or 2.9 percent. The trade deficit in this period amounted to 3.20 billion KM, which is 69.6 million less than in the previous year. The coverage of imports by exports was 58.5 percent.

The European Union remains BiH's main foreign trade partner, accounting for 66.28 percent of the total merchandise trade volume, followed by countries signatories to the "CEFTA 2006" agreement with 13.04 percent, while other countries account for 20.67 percent.

In the first half of this year, compared to the same period in 2015, exports to the EU increased by 5.64 percent, imports from the EU increased by 2.44 percent, resulting in a 4.4 percent decrease in the trade deficit with the EU, given that export growth was higher than import growth.

Exports of industrial products in the first six months of this year increased by 2.1 percent compared to the same period last year, and their imports by 0.4 percent, leading to a deficit decrease of about 3 percent. At the same time, in this period, exports of agricultural products increased by 12.83 percent.

Among the main trading partners, we have the highest import coverage by exports with: Austria, Slovenia, Germany, Croatia, Italy, Turkey, and Serbia.

In the first half of 2016, BiH exported the most to Germany, Italy, Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, Serbia, Turkey, Montenegro, Hungary, and the Netherlands. Exports to these countries account for 74.7 percent of total exports. The largest imports were from Germany, Italy, Serbia, Croatia, China, Slovenia, Turkey, Russia, Austria, and Poland. Imports from these countries in the period January-June 2016 accounted for 72.1 percent of total BiH imports.