The surplus of Ukraine’s consolidated balance of payments in January 2020 was $906 million, while in January 2019 the deficit was $68 million, according to preliminary data from the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU).
The NBU said that the current account surplus of the balance of payments in January 2020 amounted to $590 million, which is 5.4% lower than the same indicator a year earlier ($624 million).
According to the central bank, the export of goods in the first month of 2020 increased 2.3% (in December 2019 by 1.4%) and amounted to $3.8 billion.
The main factor behind the growth of the indicator was an increase in the export of food products by 14.3% (in December 2019 by 15.7%) due to an increase in the export of grains by 21.9%, oils and fats – by 29.5%. In addition, the export of engineering products increased 33.9% (in December 2019 by 10.5%), as well as mineral products – 18.1% and chemical products –24.9%, whereas in December last year, these indicators decreased by 8.3% and 5.1%, respectively. At the same time, exports of ferrous and non-ferrous metals decreased significantly: 26.4% (in December 2019 27%).
Imports of goods in January 2020 decreased 1.7% (in December 2019 increased 7.9%) and amounted to $3.9 million.
Its reduction is due to a decrease in energy imports by 17.7% (in December 2019 by 14.3%), imports of ferrous and non-ferrous metals by 6.3% (in December 2019 by 1.8%) and chemical products – by 3.2%, whose import in December last year increased 6.3%.
At the same time, non-energy imports in January 2020 increased by 2.7% (in December 2019 by 13.8%), and the volume of import of engineering products decreased only 0.3%, while in December 2019 it increased 15.4%.
