A trade deficit of €341.7 million was recorded in February in provisional figures for registered trade in goods in Malta.

The National Statistic Office said the trade deficit in the same month in 2018 was
€190.9 million.

International trade in goods.

Both imports and exports experienced increases of €156.8 million and €6 million, respectively. The increase in the value of imports, primarily due to machinery and transport equipment (€194.4 million), was partly outweighed by a decrease of €45.6 million in mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials.

On the exports side miscellaneous manufactured articles accounted to the main increase by €9.8 million.

In the first two months of 2019, the trade deficit widened by €106.3 million when compared to the same period in 2018, reaching €524.6 million. Imports and exports increased by €110.3 million and €4 million respectively.

Imports from the European Union for the first two months of the year reached €682.9 million, or 65.4% of total imports. There was a decrease of €133.8 million in imports from euro area countries when compared to the same period in 2018.

Main increases and decreases over the same period in imports were registered from the United Kingdom (€196.2 million) and Spain (€35.9 million) respectively.

With respect to exports, the main increase was attributed to the United States of America (€20.3 million), whereas Italy (€30 million) registered the highest decrease.