CROATIA'S FOREIGN TRADE DEFICIT EXCEEDS USD3 BILLION

Zagreb, July 5 (Hina) - In this year's first five months Croatia exported 16.7 billion kuna in goods or 5.1 percent more than in the same period the year before. In the said period imports in Croatia increased, amounting to 37.7 billion kuna, read preliminary data of the Central Bureau of Statistics. #L# Due to a significant fall in the dollar exchange rate in relation to Kuna (more than 17 percent), growth exchange rates expressed in dollars are significantly higher than those expressed in kuna. Croatia's exchange expressed in dollars in this year's first five months amounted to 2.4 billion or 27 percent more than in the same period in 2002, while imports rose by 37.8 percent amounting to US$5.4 billion. Croatia's foreign trade deficit at the end of May amounted to close to 21 billion kuna which is more than three billion dollars. At the end of May Croatia's foreign trade deficit amounted to US$3.03 billion while a month before it totalled US$2.25 billion. In the first five months exports covered 44.3 percent of imports. Croatia's main foreign trade partner is Italy in which 4.2 billion kuna, or US$606 million, in goods were exported in the first five months of 2003. In the same period Croatia imported from Italy 6.4 billion kuna or US$932 billion in goods. (hina) it