Trade balance posts €240m deficit in August

The country’s trade balance in August posted a deficit of 240 million euros, according to the preliminary statistics of international trade in goods provided by the Finnish Customs.

In January-August, the trade deficit amounted to EUR 580 million. In August last year, the trade deficit was EUR 523 million and in January-August it was close to EUR 2.1 billion.

The value of Finnish exports of goods was just over EUR 5.0 billion in August. The value of exports was 1.6 per cent lower than that in August last year.

The value of imports fell by 6.5 per cent in August to nearly EUR 5.3 billion. In January-August, the total value of exports increased by 2.7 per cent year on year. Total imports from the beginning of the year decreased by 0.9 per cent compared to the same period of last year.

Exports to EU member states remained at the previous year’s level in August, but imports from the EU fell by 4.2 per cent.

At the same time, exports to non-EU countries fell by 3.7 per cent and imports from non-EU countries by 9.5 per cent.

In January-August, exports to EU countries grew by 1.3 per cent and exports to countries outside EU by 4.7 per cent. Over the same period, imports from EU countries increased by 0.4 per cent, while imports from other countries decreased by 2.7 per cent.