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Steadily growing European economy to keep fueling Latvia's export growth - Finance Ministry

BC, Riga, 12.09.2018.Print version
The steady growth of the European economy, which ensures nearly three fourths of Latvia’s export sales, will keep fueling Latvia’s export growth, representatives of the Finance Ministry told LETA.

Thanks to steady economic growth in Latvia’s key export markets, the value of Latvian exports of goods hit EUR 949.8 mln in July this year, up 8.3% on July 2017.


Notably, export growth was recorded across all the largest categories of goods, including food, timber, metals and machinery. Even though the risks affecting external trade have only increased since the beginning of the year, primarily as a result of the surge of protectionism in the United States on the one hand and China and the European Union (EU) on the other, so far, they have had little effect on global trade in general and Latvia in particular, the ministry said.


According to Eurostat data, in the second quarter of this year, the EU’s seasonally unadjusted GDP grew by 2,2% on the same period a year ago. However, Latvia’s key export markets in Europe – Poland, Lithuania, Sweden, Estonia and Germany – showed faster than average growth. These countries’ share in Latvian exports of goods was 47.9% in July.


Timber and wooden products were driving Latvian exports in July, as the value of these exports rose by 28.3 % year-on-year, ensuring 4.7 percentage points of the overall increase.


As reported, During the first seven months of this year Latvia exported EUR 6.913 bn worth of goods, up 9.5% or EUR 601.9 mln against the same period last year, while Latvian imports grew 9.1% or EUR 714.2 mln to EUR 8.55 bn, according to the latest foreign trade data released today by the Central Statistical Bureau.


In July 2018, Latvia exported EUR 949.754 mln worth of goods, which was 8.1% or EUR 84 mln less than in June 2018 but 8.3% or EUR 72.8 mln more than in July 2017.


Latvian imports, meanwhile, rose by 1.8% or EUR 23.9 mln against June 2018 and climbed 14.5% or EUR 181.8 mln against July 2017 to EUR 1.355 bn in July 2018.

 






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