The value of Croatia's commodity exports in the first ten months of 2020 totalled 90.9 billion kuna (€12 billion), down 3.4 percent year-on-year, while imports declined by 9.6 percent to 141.5 billion kuna (€18.8 billion), according to preliminary data from the state statistics bureau released on Wednesday.

Due to a larger decrease in imports than in exports, the foreign trade deficit in the first ten months of this year dropped by 18.9% compared to the corresponding period of last year, to HRK 50.6 billion.

The export-import coverage ratio for the period from January to October was 64.3%.

In the first ten months of 2020, a total of HRK 63.4 billion worth of commodities were exported to EU member states, a 11.1% decrease on the year. Exports to non-EU countries dropped by 8.3% to HRK 27.6 billion.

The value of commodity imports from EU member states dropped by 10% to HRK 113.5 billion, and the value of imports from other countries fell by 7.8% to HRK 28.1 billion.

Expressed in euros, Croatia’s commodity export in the first ten months of this year totalled €12.1 billion, a decline of 4.9% on the year, while imports dropped by 11% to €18.2 billion.

The foreign trade deficit was €6.7 billion.

Exports to EU member states in the first ten months amounted to €8.4 billion, 2.6% down year-on-year. At the same time, imports to non-EU countries fell by 9.7% to €3.7 billion.

The value of imports from EU member states in the first ten months of 2020 dropped by 11.4% from the same period of 2019, to €15.1 billion, while the value of imports from non-EU countries to Croatia fell by 9.2% to €3.7 billion.

Exports in first nine months 4.5% down, imports 9.7% down

They also published data on trade in the first nine months of 2020, according to which exports, expressed in kuna, dropped by 4.5% to HRK 80.2 billion, while imports fell by 9.7% to HRK 126.5 billion.

This is a correction of the office’s preliminary statistics, according to which the value of Croatia’s commodity exports in the first nine months dropped by 4.8%, while imports fell by 10.1% compared to the corresponding period of last year.