Fuel products aside, exports are soaring
The increase in olive oil exports and the decline in exports of fuel products were the main factors that affected the course of external trade in the first quarter of the year, according to official data. There was also a significant shift in the main exporting products as well as the markets they head to.
The total value of exports in the January-March period this year amounted to 6.27 billion euros, down 1.8 percent from the same period in 2014. However, when fuel products are exempted, there was a 549.1-million-euro increase, amounting to 14 percent year-on-year.
The European Commission recently revised its forecast regarding the course of Greek exports, reducing their expected growth to 4.1 percent on annual basis from a previous estimate of 5.6 percent.
Most Greek exports (52.4 percent) head to fellow European Union member-states and their value climbed by 14.5 percent in Q1. However, exports to North America soared 45.8 percent, on the more favorable exchange rate of the euro with the dollar, making the US the sixth most important market for Greece’s exports, from tenth a year earlier.
