KYIV. July 16 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukraine’s foreign trade surplus in goods in May 2015 amounted to $332.3 million, compared to $230.2 million in April, $288.1 million in March and $133.5 million in February 2015, the State Statistics Service has said.
The service said that the surplus grew by 81.9% year-over-year.
According to its data, exports in May 2015 decreased by 41.2%, to $2.94 billion, while imports fell by 45.9%, to $2.61 billion.
The pace of decline in foreign trade accelerated, especially for imports: in April 2015 exports of goods from Ukraine fell by 39.3% year-over-year and imports dropped by 39.2%. In absolute indicators, in May 2015 exports fell by 4.3% compared to the previous month and imports decreased by 8.2%.
In January-May 2015 exports of goods fell by 35.9% year-over-year, to $15.44 billion, while imports declined by 38.8%, to $14.53 billion, while the surplus improved by 2.5 times, to $910 million.
The service said that the Russia’s share of the exports’ structure fell from 19.5% in January-May 2014 to 12.1% in January-May 2015, and the share of imports fell from 29.8% to 16.4%.
The share of supplies to China grew from 5.4% to 7.4%, to Turkey – from 6.2% to 7.5%, to Egypt from 5% to 6.1%, to Italy – from 4.9% to 5.2%, to India from 3.3% to 4%, to Germany from 2.9% to 3.5%, while to Poland it fell from 5.2% to 5%.
The Hungary’s share of total imports grew from 1.9% to 5.5%, and Germany’s share – from 8.1% to 11.2%. Supplies from China rose from 9% to 10.5%, from Poland – from 5.1% to 5.9%, France – from 2.5% to 2.8%, the Untied States – from 2.8% to 4.1% and from Belarus they did not change, being 6.4%.
The ratio of imports coverage by exports in January-May 2015 was 1.06 (1.02 year-over-year).
The country traded with partners from 205 countries.
The share of non-precious metals and products made of them of the Ukrainian exports was 27.6%, that for crops – 18.7%, mechanical and electric machines – 9.9%, oil and mineral products – 8.5% each, finished food – 6.4%, chemical products – 6.3%.
Exports of goods to the EU countries totaled $5.165 billion or 33.5% of total exports in January-May 2015 and it fell by 35.9% year-over-year.
The share of mineral products of total imports was 32.9%, mechanical and electric machines – 14.5%, chemical products – 14.1%, polymers, plastic and products made of them – 6.7%, non-precious metals and products made of them – 5%, finished food – 4.4% and crops – 4.3%.
Imports of goods from the EU totaled $6.154 billion or 42.4% of total imports and it fell by 25.6% year-over-year.
As reported, the statistics data differ significantly from NBU data which takes into account informal trade. According to the balance of payments previously published by the NBU, the deficit of Ukraine’s foreign trade in goods in May totaled $162 million, while in April it was $114 million and in May 2014 it was $541 million. Exports fell by 42.3%, to $2.71 billion, while imports fell by 45.2%, to $2.87 billion.
NBU said that the deficit of Ukraine’s foreign trade with goods in January-May 2015 totaled $1.29 billion, which is 2.5 times better year-over-year: exports fell by 36.4%, to $14.32 billion and imports declined by 39.2%, to $15.6 billion.
