Trade deficit down 13.6% y/y in Dec-23
In Dec-23, goods exports declined by 7.5% y/y to US$ 514.2mn, due to the last year’s high base effect, after falling 1.8% y/y in previous month. Similarly, goods imports also contracted by 11.3% y/y, reaching US$ 1.3bn in December, following a 6.8% y/y reduction in November. This led to a 13.6% y/y narrowing of the trade deficit, totaling to US$ 789.6mn.
Overall, in 2023, goods exports and imports reached record-high levels. Exports increased by 9.1% y/y, reaching US$ 6.1bn, while imports were up by 14.0% y/y to US$ 15.4bn. Consequently, the trade deficit expanded by 17.4% y/y to US$ 9.3bn.
Money transfers stood at US$ 4.1bn in 2023
Money transfers were down by 42.4% y/y to US$ 308.3mn in Dec-23 (in line with our expectation), due to the last year’s high base and normalization in transfers from Russia.
Overall, remittances reduced by 5.7% y/y to US$ 4.1bn in 2023. From major remitting countries, in 2023 transfers reduced only from Russia (-26.2% y/y, accounting for 37.0% of total). In contrast, there were substantial increases in remittances from EU (+25.2% y/y, 32.5% of total), USA (+39.6% y/y, 11.1% of total) and Kazakhstan (+32.4% y/y, 4.8% of total).
