According to the State Statistics Committee, Ukraine lost more than 6% of foreign trade in 2020 amid the pandemic. The deficit of foreign trade in goods and services of Ukraine, according to the statistics service, in 2020 amounted to $256 million, which is 14.4 times less than a year earlier.
For now, the world trade organization says global merchandise trade continues to recover from the shock of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The negative balance of Ukraine's foreign trade in goods in January-September 2021 decreased by 33.9% compared to January-August 2020 — to $1.73 billion from $2.62 billion.
According to the state statistics service, the export of goods from Ukraine for 2021 increased by 35.6% compared to the same period in 2020 — to $41.79 billion, imports by 30.1% — to $43.52 billion.
The State Statistics Service clarified that in August, compared with July 2021, the seasonally adjusted volume of exports increased by 1.9% — to $6.01 billion, imports — by 0.6%, to $6.09 billion.
The seasonally adjusted foreign trade balance in August 2021 was negative and amounted to $0.080 billion, which is better than the previous month ($1,56 million).
The export coverage ratio of imports for eight months of this year amounted to 0.96% (for the same period in 2020 — 0.92%).
The state statistics service specified that foreign trade operations were carried out with partners from 231 countries of the world. Among them were even such exotic countries as Togo, Malawi, Djibouti, Reunion and the Faroe Islands.
The WTO trade barometer (an indicator that provides real-time information on the trajectory of a merchandise trade), updated in August, has reached an all-time high. The barometer's most recent reading of 110.4 is the highest ever since its introduction in July 2016 and is up more than 20 points year on year.
