TIRANA, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- Albania's trade deficit in July reached 52 billion Albanian lek (around 579.6 million U.S. dollars) in July, increasing by 57.6 percent year-on-year, the country's Institute of Statistics said on Monday.
The value of exports fell by 12 percent in July to 33 billion lek (368 million dollars), while imports rose by 21.1 percent to 85 billion lek (948 million dollars). Wider trade deficit was believed to be caused mainly by weak overseas demand and strong value of lek.
Export in the first seven months of 2024 suffered a 14.5 percent decrease to 233 billion lek (some 2.6 billion dollars), primarily due to declines in minerals, fuels, electricity, textiles, footwear, construction materials and metals.
Italy ranked the top destination for Albanian exports in the first seven months, with shipments totaling 102.9 billion lek (about 1.1 billion dollars), also a 14.1 percent decrease compared to the previous year.
Exports to China experienced some year-on-year increase, from 4.9 billion lek (55 million dollars) to 6.1 billion lek (69 million dollars) in January-July period.
