Austrian trade deficit drops €3bn in 2014

The Austrian trade deficit has decreased by 3.16 billion euros (3.52 billion U.S. dollars) to reach 1.74 billion euros in 2014, Statistics Austria stated Friday.

In its conclusive findings on the 2014 trade balance, the statistics office said the result had come about from a 0.7 percent drop in imports combined with a 1.8 percent increase in exports.

The total value of imports had decreased about one billion euros to 129.85 billion euros, while exports increased almost 2.3 billion euros to reach 128.11 billion euros.

The figures follow the trend of the past three years where exports have continued to improve alongside decreasing imports. Measured over a ten-year period total foreign trade has also increased by a third.

The majority of trade, specifically 71.2 percent of imports and 68.8 percent of exports, was conducted with other European Union states. The most important product group was machinery and vehicles, followed by manufactured goods.

As was expected in light of the Ukraine conflict, trade with Russia declined significantly, imports dropping 28 percent and exports 8 percent.

China meanwhile overtook Switzerland to become the third-largest source country of imports for Austria.