Trade deficit shrinks further in Jan-Sept
Greece’s trade deficit is continuing its decline according to January-September data presented by Eurostat on Monday, as it fell to 14.5 billion euros from 16.6 billion in the same period last year.
In the first nine months of the year the value of Greek exports increased to 20.8 billion euros from 19.8 billion a year earlier (up 5 percent), while imports contracted by 3 percent to 35.2 billion euros from 36.5 billion in 2012.
That means Greece still has the third-largest trade deficit in the European Union, behind France’s (57.5 billion euros) and Britain’s (55.1 billion). At the same time, other countries on the EU periphery either have a smaller deficit, such as Spain’s 11.6 billion euros, or posted a surplus such as Ireland’s 28.5 billion euros and Italy’s 19.6 billion.
According to the EU’s macroeconomic database AMECO, the value of Greek exports in 2005 prices will this year remain below that of 2007 and 2008 despite its growth.
