PRAGUE, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- The Czech Republic reported a foreign trade deficit of 12.1 billion Czech crowns (503 million U.S. dollars) for the month of June, according to a preliminary report by the Czech Statistical Office (CSU) on Monday.
That figure, which follows a trade deficit in the previous month of nearly 1 billion dollars, is 3.4 billion crowns larger year-on-year.
The office said that the industry was heavily impacted by the rising prices of oil and natural gas. However, this was eased by a higher surplus of motor vehicles (at 10.9 billion crowns), electricity (3.9 billion crowns) and metal products (2.5 billion crowns).
The Czech Republic's trade balance within the European Union (EU) improved by 20 billion crowns year-on-year in June but deepened by 23 billion with non-EU countries.
In year-on-year terms, exports increased by 15.3 percent to 394.2 billion crowns in June while imports rose by 15.9 percent to 406.3 billion crowns.
"There were no significant changes in foreign trade in goods in June compared to previous months. Exports and imports increased significantly, yet the trade balance ended again in negative numbers for the fifth month in a row," Miluse Kavenova, director of the Department of Foreign Trade Statistics, said in a statement.
From January to June 2022, the total trade deficit has climbed to 76.0 billion crowns, in contrast to the surplus of 76.2 billion from the same period last year. So far in the first half of the year, exports have increased by 9.3 percent while imports have surged 17.6 percent year-on-year, according to the CSU. (1 U.S. dollars = 24.04 Czech crowns)
