In the first four months of this year, Bosnia and Herzegovina achieved a foreign trade deficit of almost four billion marks. This practically means that every month this year, our exports were one billion marks less than our imports. If this trend continues until the end of the year, Bosnia and Herzegovina could record a record minus in foreign exchange of as much as 12 billion, a billion more than last year.
In the first four months of this year, compared to the same period in 2023, exports were lower by 8.3 percent, while imports increased by 5.6 percent.
“In the period January-April, exports amounted to five billion and 320 million BAM, and imports to nine billion and 291 million BAM. The coverage of imports by exports was 57.3 percent. A negative trade balance was achieved in foreign exchange of three billion and 971 million BAM”.
Again, most of the exports were to the European Union. 75 percent or three quarters of our exports refer to the European market. But there was also a drop of seven percent compared to the same period last year. Our two key export sectors, the electro-metal and wood industry, have failed the most.
ZDRAVKO MARINKOVIĆ, Vice President of the Foreign Trade Chamber of Bosnia and Herzegovina
“In these sectors, we mainly rely on exports to the EU and the conditions that are happening in the countries where we export actually dictated the situation when it comes to the export of these two items. That’s why we failed”.
According to economists, the drop in exports was influenced by several factors, but the main one is the slowdown of European economies, above all Germany. The war in Ukraine, which has entered its third year, should not be ignored either, they say.
ZORAN PAVLOVIĆ, economic analyst
“When Europe gets a cold, we have pneumonia. In a sense, we don’t have orders. On the other hand, the war in Ukraine and the investment that the EU has towards Ukraine are draining the economies of those countries a lot, and that means less money for citizens who would like something bought or invested”.
Although we are not responsible for the drop in exports, if it continues like this, it will lead to the fact that the already huge foreign trade deficit we have is even bigger.
ADMIR CAVALIĆ, economic analyst
“We don’t know what will happen until the end of the year, it’s a long year. But we can still conclude that, according to existing tendencies, this deficit will probably be relatively larger compared to previous years. And that is primarily due to the decline in export activity. It is to be hoped that it will not significantly reflect on the business of our exporters, i.e. consequently automatically on the rest of the BiH economy”.
The total trade of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2023 amounted to 44 billion BAM. The value of imported goods was 28 billion, and the value of exported goods was 17 billion, which means that the foreign trade deficit for last year was 11 billion BAM. At the end of this year, we will probably have an even bigger deficit in foreign trade, BHRT writes.
