TIRANA, Nov. 18 (Xinhua) -- Albania's exports decreased by 3.6 percent year-on-year in the first 10 months of 2019, the National Institute of Statistics (INSTAT) reported on Monday.
The total value of the country's exports in the first 10 months of this year was 252 billion Albanian lek (2.27 billion U.S. dollars), a 3.6 percent decrease year-on-year.
Exports of minerals, fuels and electricity decreased by 3.1 percent; construction materials and metals by 2.4 percent; and textile and footwear by 2.1 percent.
The countries with which Albania registered the largest increase in exports in this period were Germany (5.8 percent) and China (13.7 percent).
A decrease in exports in this period was registered with Italy (2.6 percent), Spain (13.3 percent) and Greece (4.6 percent).
INSTAT said that in the first 10 months of 2019 the value of imports reached 540 billion Albanian lek, up 2.9 percent year-on-year.
The country's trade deficit in this period was 288 billion Albanian lek, 9.4 percent higher than in the same period of 2018.
In the first 10 months of 2019, the countries with which Albania had the largest increase in imports were China (14.5 percent), Turkey (11.2 percent) and Greece (8.1 percent). (1 Albanian lek = 0.009 U.S. dollar)
