Malta registered a trade deficit of €200.8 million in March, compared to €162.6 million in the same month of 2017, according to preliminary figures published by the National Statistics Office.

The NSO said both imports and exports decreased by €22.1 million and €60.3 million respectively. The decrease in the value of imports was primarily due to mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials (€78.3 million), and was partly outweighed by an increase of €70.9 million in machinery and transport equipment.

The main decreases in the value of exports were registered in mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials (€45.6 million) and machinery and transport equipment(€16.9 million.

During the first three months this year, the trade deficit narrowed by €11.4 million when compared to the corresponding period of 2017, reaching €596.8 million. Both imports and exports showed decreases of €90.3 million and €78.9 million respectively.

Lower imports were mainly in machinery and transport equipment (€59.9 million) and mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials (€45.9 million). With regard to exports, the main decrease was registered in mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials (€106.7 million), which was partly outweighed by an increase of Є21 million in semi-manufactured goods.

Malta’s trade imports from the European Union reached €905.3 million, or 67.3 per cent of total imports. There was an increase of €114.3 million in imports from euro area countries when compared to the same period of 2017.

Main increases and decreases in imports were registered from the United Kingdom (€81.4 million) and Canada (€101.2 million), respectively. The main increase in exports was to Japan (€27.9 million), whereas Egypt (€19.1 million) registered the highest decrease.