Trade Deficit Jumps to 2-Year High
The nation's imports outpaced its exports by 138 million euros in February, doubling the previous month's trade gap and setting a new 23-month deficit record.
Imports to Estonia totaled 1.11 billion euros for the month, while exports came in at 0.97 billion euros, Statistics Estonia said.
Both imports and exports have seen strong growth over the past two years, however exports began to falter last December - dipping back below the 1 billion euro mark - in the face of weakening demand from Scandinavian export markets. Meanwhile, imports jumped by over 100 million euros from January to February, making their biggest single-month gain since March of 2011.
Compared to February of last year, monthly exports were up 16 percent and imports 25 percent, with the latter mainly boosted by arrivals of mineral fuels and transport equipment.
Of Estonia's exports in February, the largest share, 28 percent, was made up of machinery and equipment, followed by mineral products including fuel and electricity at 20 percent, and metals and metal products at 8 percent.
Machinery and equipment also figured heavily on the import side, accounting for 23 percent of the total, with mineral products coming in at 20 percent and transport equipment at 9 percent.
Sweden, Finland and Russia continue to be the country's largest market destinations, taking in 17 percent, 14 percent and 10 percent of the country's total exports, respectively.
For import countries of origin, Finland and Germany tie for the top spot at 14 percent each, followed by Latvia at 10 percent.
Steve Roman