Lebanon’s trade deficit narrowed in the first 10 months of the year to reach $13.51B, down by 6.25% compared to the same period in 2018. In details, the total value of imports lost an annual 1.55% to stand at $16.61B. Also, the value of exports rose by 25.96 %to stand at $3.10B by October 2019. Worth noting that “Mineral products “and “Vegetable products” are the only 2 categories to witness an increase in its imported value. As for the month of October alone, total Deficit amounted to $1B which is 30.1 % lower when compared to the same month last year.
In term of value, “Mineral products” were the leading imports to Lebanon in the first 10 months of the year, grasping a 33.44% stake of total imported goods. “Products of the chemical or allied industries” followed, constituting 10.28% of the total, while “machinery and electrical instruments” grasped 8.79% of the total.
In details, Lebanon imported $5.55B worth of “Mineral Products”, compared to a value of 3.55B in the same period last year. In fact, the net weight of imported “mineral fuels, oils and their products” is still increasing since the start of the year and witnessed a yearly rise from 5,460,305 tons by October 2018 to reach 9,945,382 tons by October 2019.
Meanwhile, the value of “chemical or allied industries” recorded a decrease of 7.07% y-o-y to settle at $1.71B and that of “machinery and electrical instruments” also declined by 25.70% over the same period to $1.46B.
In terms of top trade partners, Lebanon primarily imported from China, US, and Russia with shares of 8.62%, 8.52% and 7.34%, respectively, in Q3 2019.
As for exports, the top category of products exported from Lebanon were “pearls, precious stones and metals”, which grasped a share of 39.02% of total exports, followed by a share of 10.25% for “Machinery;electrical instruments “and 10.13% for “Products of the chemical or allied industries “over the same period.
In details, the value of “pearls, precious stones, & metals” surged from 552.42M by October 2018 to reach $1.21B by October 2019. As for the value of “Machinery;electrical instruments”, it recorded an increase of 18.15% year-on-year to $318M. Meanwhile, the value of “Products of the chemical or allied industries”, it increased by 4.28% y-o-y to $314.37M.
In the first 10 months of 2019, Switzerland followed by the UAE and Saudi Arabia were Lebanon’s top three export destinations, respectively constituting 28.36%, 11.60%, and 6.43% of total exports.
Yearly Evolution of the Trade Deficit by October
