Bulgaria's foreign trade gap contracts 64% Y/Y in January-August
2011-10-11 18:11:57
Bulgaria's foreign trade gap shrank by 63.8 per cent in annual terms to 1.13 billion leva in the first eight months of 2011.
By comparison, the foreign trade deficit was 3.13 billion leva in January-August 2010.
The contraction resulted from a more rapid growth pace of exports, which rose by 34 per cent to 25.723 billion leva. Imports totalled 26.856 billion leva, up 20.3 per cent year-on-year.
Foreign trade was the only way through which Bulgaria benefited from the global economic recovery in the past two years. Export-oriented companies touched pre-crisis levels of sales and some companies even increased salaries. The growth of both exports and imports, however, came chiefly because of the higher commodity prices and industrial production, while real production grew to a lesser extent.