Bulgaria’s trade deficit at the end of July 2007 reached 8.71 billion leva, which was a year-on-year increase of 40.2 per cent, the National Statistical Institute (NSI) said on October 10.

The deficit for the first seven months of 2006 was 6.21 billion leva.

There was a 1.37 billion leva deficit in July 2007 alone.

The FOB exports at the end of July reached 14.45 billion leva, representing an increase of 8.6 per cent. Meanwhile the CIF exports grew by 18.7 per cent by end-July 2007 to reach 23.16 billion leva.

The European Union continued to be Bulgaria’s main trading partner in the period of January by July 2007, with a 62.2 per cent share of the country’s exports, and 59.3 per cent of the imports, NSI said.

In the ranking of industry sectors, “alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, and tobacco products” marked the highest export growth with 37.6 per cent on an annual basis to 230.3 million leva. At the same time the same category’s import grew by a remarkable 156.8 per cent to 180 million leva.

The export of “unprocessed and raw materials” increased by 28.3 per cent to 1.06 billion leva, while the “fossil fuels and lubricants” category went up with its 15.7 per cent export growth to 1.86 billion leva.
The import of “machines, equipment and vehicles” was on the rise with 20.6 per cent to 6.73 billion leva, which represented almost 30 per cent of the country’s total imports, the NSI said.