Balance of trade registered a deficit of €84.2 million in October, narrowing the gap from the same month in 2019 when the trade deficit stood at €311.1 million. Provisional data by the National Statistics Office indicates that this was the smallest margin of difference in international trade since December last year.
Imports registered a total value of €339.9, a decrease of €308.6 million from October 2019 driven mainly by a decline in machinery and transport equipment (-€157.6M). Exports also dropped from €337.4 million to €255.7 million year-on-year, with mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials contributing the biggest decrease of €49.2 million.
Over the months from January to October, balance of trade recorded a deficit of €1.97 billion. In the first ten months of 2019, trade in international goods had reached a deficit of €3.50 billion. All categories of industry registered a deficit this year except for miscellaneous manufactured articles with a trade surplus of €107.5 million, an increase from a surplus of €16.8 million in the same period last year.
