SARAJEVO, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- In 2019, Bosnia and Herzegovina's (BiH) exports amounted to 11.8 billion convertible mark (6.5 billion U.S. dollars), down 3 percent year-on-year, while the country's imports were worth 19.9 billion KM, 1.5 percent more than in 2018, the BiH Foreign Trade Chamber said here on Tuesday.
"The increase in the trade deficit was mainly caused by the loss of the Kosovo market and the bankruptcy of the aluminum factory in Mostar," said the Chamber's Director, Vjekoslav Vukovic.
The aluminum smelter in Mostar, the third largest city in BiH, exported over 350 million KM worth of products annually but in July 2019 it went bankrupt due to unpaid bills to power utility Elektroprivreda HZHB.
The country's main trading partners are the European Union (EU) member states and the Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA) members, accounting for 83 percent of all trade.
They are followed by Turkey, the United States and China. BiH mostly imports cars, food products and medicines and exports electricity, wood, car seats and textiles.
The bulk of BiH's imports comes from China. In 2019, the country imported over 540 million KM worth of goods from China (a year-on-year increase of nearly 15 percent), while its exports to the Asian country totaled 30 million KM, according to BiH figures. Enditem
