Although it is not particularly noticeable in the lives of ordinary people, in the past year and a half the signs of economic recovery are in sight in BiH. That can be seen from the latest data on foreign trade exchange, which show that in the first six months of this year the export of BiH amounted to 4.694.369.000 BAM. In comparison with the same period last year, it increased by 4.19 percent.
The country is, however, still in significant deficit because in the mentioned period BiH imported goods and services in total amount of as much as 7.684.572.000 BAM. Thus, although the country recorded a decrease in foreign trade deficit by 0.54 percent in comparison with the same period in 2015, in the first six months of 2016 the foreign trade deficit still amounts to staggering 2.990.203.000 BAM.
Momir Tošić, Director of the Sector for Macroeconomic System of the Foreign Trade Chamber of BiH, believes that regardless of the complex situation on global plan, BiH still resists the negative trends and records a certain increase in export.
When it comes to export, in the first half of this year the agronomy-industrial sector generated the growth of export by 14.5 percent more than in the same period last year. Also growing is the export of textile, whose export increased by as much as four times that in the same period last year. Positive growth is recorded in the wood industry sector as well, with growth of export by around 10.9 percent. Continuity of growth is noticeable in defense industry, too.
Regarding countries and regions, EU is still the most important foreign trade partner of BiH in terms of volume of exchange, with the share of 71 percent in the total volume of exchange. Thereby, only to the EU market BiH exported 3.467.279.000 BAM, which is by 7.64 percent more than in the first six months of last year. Moreover, import from the EU also increased and it amounted to 5.403.111.000 BAM (7.24 percent). CEFTA is on the second place with the share of 14.3 percent of export and 15.5 percent of import. BiH exported 669.028.000 BAM to that market and imported 1.189.740.000 BAM from that market.
The most significant partners from this group are Switzerland and Turkey. As expected, in terms of individual countries Croatia is on the first place. Total export from BiH to Croatia amounted to 491.493.000 BAM, while the import amounted to 1.164.149.000 BAM.
(Source: fokus.ba/photo: poslovni.hr)
