Malta reported a trade deficit of €231 million in July 2020, narrowing the gap by 43 percent compared to the same month last year. Provisional data by the National Statistics Office indicates that both imports and exports recorded a year-on-year decrease, with the former down from €687.9 million to €466.2 million and the latter down from €278.3 million to €235.2 million.
Mineral fuels, lubricants, and related materials contributed the biggest decline in the value of imports, falling by €100.3 million over the twelve months. The next largest drop was observed in machinery and transport equipment, with a decrease of €79.3 million. These two commodity groups also registered the sharpest declines in exports: a dip of €29.9 million in machinery and transport equipment, and of €29.3 million in mineral fuels, lubricants, and related materials.
In the first seven months of the year, trade deficit stood at €1,470.9 million, slimmer than that registered during the same period in 2019 by €1,120.5 million. The value of imports fell by 40 percent to reach €3,236.1 million while the value of exports amounted to €1,765.2, a decrease of 10 percent.
Just under €2,076 million of imports arrived from the EU, 50.5 percent of total imports. Meanwhile, exports to the bloc amounted to €770 million, 43 percent of all dispatches. The greatest value of imports between January and July arrived from Italy (€534M), followed by China (€269M) and ahead of Luxembourg (€207M) and Germany (€205M).
The value of exports to Germany was €286 million, the highest among importers of Maltese commodities. France (€119M), Italy (€81M) and the United States (€76M) were the next three biggest destination countries for exports.
