Trade balance posts €770m deficit in February

The trade balance showed a deficit of 770 million euros in February, according to the preliminary statistics of international trade in goods provided by the Finnish Customs.

Calculated from January to February, there was a deficit of about 1.1 billion euros.

Under the same period last year, the balance of trade showed a surplus of 395 million euros.

According to the preliminary statistics, the value of Finnish exports marked a 15.2 per cent decline while the value of imports registered a 2.5 per cent slide in February year on year.

The value of Finnish exports in February was almost 4.4 billion euros and the value of imports was slightly more than 5.1 billion euros.

Calculated from the beginning of the year, exports posted a 16.2 per cent decrease and imports a 2.9 per cent drop year on year.

The United Kingdom withdrew from the EU on January 31, 2020. UK data has been excluded from the group EU-countries and included in the group external trade from February 2020 publication onwards in international trade in goods statistics provided by the Finnish Customs.

Exports to EU member states posted a 14.6 per cent decrease in February and exports to non-EU countries marked a 15.8 per cent slide.

As of in February, imports from EU-countries registered a 1.9 per cent slide and imports from non-EU countries a 3.3 per cent one.

Calculated from the beginning of the year, exports to EU decreased by 18.4 per cent and to non-EU countries by 13.2 per cent.

During the same period, imports from EU member states fell by 3.2 per cent and from other countries by 2.6 per cent.