“It’s understandable that the growth of exports, which has been very fast for three years, is slowing down naturally. It’s impossible to demonstrate impressive results for a long time in particular when demand is subdued. It should also be noted that a surge in grain exports in the fall of last year will affect the rates of growth in the months to come,” Vilija Tauraitė said in comment about the latest foreign trade figures released by the statistics office earlier on Monday.
In July, the country’s exports rose by an annual 8.3 percent.
Lithuania’s companies were not responsible for the slowdown, she said adding that their competitiveness indexes remained strong. The analyst warned, however, that time would come eventually when the need to raise wages and invest in expansion or upgrade would force businesses to raise prices, which would make it more difficult to compete.
“Demand for Lithuanian goods abroad raises most concerns in the exports area. Although the revival of Germany’s economy encourages optimism, the news coming from Russia does not seem very positive, in particular if we remember that Eastern markets gave the biggest impetus to the recovery of Lithuania’s exports after the crisis. Stagnant exports to Latvia do not cheer up, either,” Tauraitė said.
Although macroeconomic signals were not very favorable as far as exports were concerned, corporate executives expected the demand for their products to increase in the near future, she said.
“In general, macroeconomic factors and the moods of corporate executives imply that in the near future exports will be growing at a slower pace than in recent years. Yet, they will continue to move forward,” Tauraitė added.
Lithuania's exports rose by 13.7 percent in the first seven months of this year to 47.998 billion litas (EUR 13.9b) and its imports went up by 10.9 percent to 52.015 billion litas, the country's statistics office said earlier on Monday.
Lithuania's foreign trade deficit for January through July narrowed by 14.4 year-on-year to 4.017 billion litas, based on non-final data based on customs declarations and Intrastat reports.
