Drastic export slowdown in April

Data published by the National Statistics Institute (INS) on Monday showed that goods exported in April were worth 1.86 billion euros, a mere 3.7% increase against April 2005. The growth pace of exports is currently at its lowest level for the last 2 years. Imports in April on the other hand stood at 2.91 billion euros, a 14.1% increase against April 2005. As a result, the trade deficit for April reached 1.05 billion euros. The export slowdown and the continued import increase widened the gap between the growth rate of exports and imports for the first four months of the year. The reason for these results can be explained by the holidays in April, which on the one hand led to an increase in consumption and imports and on the other hand meant that industry employees had time off, which amounted to a decline in exports. Overall, exports stood at almost 8.08 billion euros (a 17.2% increase against the same period of 2005) for the first four months of the year, while imports stood at almost 11.5 billion euros (a 24.6% increase). ZF