Iceland's trade deficit widens in first 9 months

Iceland's trade deficit widened in the first nine months of 2016 as the Nordic island country's total value of exports of goods decreased by more than 15 percent, Icelandic statistics agency said on Monday.

In the first nine months of 2016, the value of exported goods from Iceland amounted to 405.7 billion Icelandic kronur (3.595 billion U.S. dollars) and the value of imported goods amounted to 495.3 billion kronur, according to Statistics Iceland.

Thus there was a trade deficit of 89.6 billion kronur as compared with a trade deficit of 17.1 billion kronur in the first nine months of 2015 at current rates of exchange, the statistics agency said.

The total value of exports of goods in the first nine months of 2016 was 74 billion kronur, or 15.4 percent, lower than in the same period the year before.

Exported manufacturing products contributed to 50.4 percent of total exported goods and their value was 20.5 percent lower than in the same period the year before, mainly due to decreases in aluminium prices. Marine products contributed 43.5 percent of the total exports and their value was 12.4 percent lower.

The total value of imports of goods in the first nine months of 2016 was 1.4 billion kronur, or 0.3 percent, lower than in the same period the year before, mainly because of fuels and industrial supplies. However, the imports of capital goods and transport equipment increased. (1 U.S. dollar=112.86 Icelandic kronur) Endit