North Macedonia’s trade deficit further widens in Jan.-Aug.

SKOPJE, Oct. 4 (Xinhua) — North Macedonia’s trade deficit during the period of January-August amounted to 132.4 billion denars (around 2.36 billion U.S. dollars), up 19.6 percent from the same period one year ago, the State Statistics Office (SSO) reported on Friday.
Exports during the first eight months of this year amounted to 319.5 billion denars, down 5.7 percent compared to the previous year. Meanwhile, imports amounted to 451.9 billion denars, up 0.5 percent.
Chemical and related products, machinery and transport equipment, as well as manufactured goods, were the top three items in terms of export value, valued at 93.6 billion denars, 92.6 billion denars and 37.4 billion denars, respectively.
In terms of import value, manufactured goods, machinery and transport equipment, as well as chemicals and related products, ranked the top three items, with value at 136.6 billion denars, 114.3 billion denars and 56.6 billion denars, respectively.
China ranked the fourth-biggest trading partner of North Macedonia, after Germany, the United Kingdom and Greece. Trade value between North Macedonia and China amounted to 44.7 billion denars in the January-August period, up 2.8 percent year-on-year. (1 denar = 0.018 U.S. dollar) ■