Lebanon trade balance deteriorated in the first half of 2019 due mainly to the large increase in oil imports. Lebanon’s trade deficit widened in the first 6 months of the year to reach $8.41B, up by 4.58% compared to the same period in 2018. Regardless of the promising progress in exports, which grew by a yearly 12.38% to $1.73B, the wider deficit came as a result of a 5.83% yearly increase in the value of imports to $10.14B noting that “ Mineral products “ and “Vegetable products” are the only 2 categories to witness an increase in its imported value. Worth mentioning, that the trade deficit has increased in absolute terms, yet the exports to imports ratio stood at 17.06% in H1 2019, compared to 16.07% in the previous year, mainly as a result of exports increasing at a faster pace than imports.
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