Finland sees €2.6b trade deficit in 2018

The trade balance showed a deficit of slightly over 2.6 billion euros in 2018, according to the preliminary data of Finnish Customs.

The deficit in the trade with EU countries decreased to under 1.5 billion euros last year, said an official press release on Thursday.

In the trade with non-EU countries, there was a deficit of over 1.1 euros in 2018.

The 2017 trade balance had a deficit of almost 2.8 billion euros. That year, the trade with EU countries showed a deficit of two billion euros, and the trade with non-EU countries showed a deficit of 711 million euros.

In 2016, the trade deficit amounted to 3.1 billion euros. That year, the external trade was in surplus by 434 million euros but the EU trade showed a deficit of 3.6 billion euros.

According to the data, the value of Finnish goods exports increased by seven per cent in 2018.

The value of exports amounted to over 63.8 billion euros. The value of imports also increased, by six per cent. The value of goods imports amounted to almost 66.5 billion euros.

In the previous year (2017), exports went up by 15 per cent and imports by 14 per cent. In 2016, exports decreased by four per cent, whereas imports increased by one per cent.

Compared to the previous year, there was a decrease in the trade deficit last year.

The growth of the exports in almost all main sectors slowed down in January-November 2018 compared to the growth rate of the previous year, except in forest industry products, the export of which rose by a tenth.

Exports of machinery grew by six per cent, but exports of transport equipment decreased by four per cent due to the many ship deliveries in the year of comparison. Exports of motor vehicles increased by 16 per cent. Exports of metal industry products increased by more than one tenth. The value of petroleum product exports also increased in line with the increased export prices. Other chemical industry exports increased moderately, except for medicine exports, which decreased. Finnish Customs will publish detailed country and goods statistics on the foreign trade in goods for the whole of last year on 28 February 2019.

The growth of the value of goods imports also decreased in January-November 2018. The imports of transport equipment and foodstuffs remained at the same level as the corresponding period the year before. Imports of industrial production supplies and capital goods grew somewhat, but the value of imports of fuels and lubricants increased rapidly due to the price increase. Imports of consumer goods increased slightly.

Exports to the EU countries increased by six per cent in 2018. Exports to the eurozone went up by four per cent. Exports to non-EU countries increased by eight per cent. Imports from EU countries increased by four per cent and imports from other countries by ten per cent.

In 2017, exports to EU countries increased by 17 per cent, and exports to non-EU countries also increased, by 13 per cent. In 2017, imports from EU countries increased less than exports, 11 per cent. Meanwhile, imports from non-EU countries increased by 18 per cent.