Macedonia’s foreign trade deficit increased by 0.4% to $2.34bn in 2014, the statistics office said. We estimate that the full-year deficit equals 20.6% of the projected 2014 GDP. Both exports and imports registered double-digit growth rates – exports rose 15.6% y/y to $4.93bn and imports grew 10.3% y/y to $7.28bn.
In December alone, the deficit soared 22% y/y to $253.3mn, as exports dropped 11.8% y/y to $360.7mn and imports edged down 0.4% y/y to $614mn.
The EU-28 countries bought 76.6% of Macedonia’s exports and forwarded 63.5% of its imports in 2014. Macedonia’s exports to the EU grew 22% to $3.78bn, and imports from the bloc rose 11.8% to $4.62bn.
Macedonia's main export markets were Germany (accounting for 41.4% of 2014 exports), Bulgaria (6.6%), Italy (6.1%), Serbia (5.2%) and Kosovo (4.7%). Imports came mainly from the UK (12.3%), Germany (11.1%), Greece (9.2%), Serbia (8.2%) and Italy (6.2%).
In 2014, top export products were: supported catalysts with precious metal or precious metal compounds as the active substance; ferro-nickel; ignition wiring sets and other wiring sets used in vehicles, aircraft or ships; iron and steel products (flat-rolled products); and clothes. The main imported goods included oil; platinum and platinum alloys; electricity; and other metals of the platinum group and alloys thereof.
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