In March 2017, the current account deficit widened to USD 783 million (versus USD 344 million in February), due to scheduled interest payments on restructured government bonds. As a result, the primary income account deficit widened markedly to USD 544 million in March 2017.
Meanwhile, the merchandise trade deficit narrowed slightly, driven by increased food exports.
The value of exports of goods amounted to USD 3.8 billion. In annual terms, growth in exports accelerated to 36.6% yoy (versus 21.7% in February), driven by a favorable price environment and last year’s bountiful harvest.
Thus, food exports accelerated to 49.3% yoy, with grain exports rising by 28.4% yoy and exports of fats and sunflower oil increasing 1.6-fold yoy.
Metallurgical exports rose by 36.8% yoy and iron ore exports increased 2.1-fold, driven by a surge in global commodity prices. Meanwhile, machinery exports declined by 5.3%yoy.
In March, the value of merchandise imports increased to USD 4.4 billion. In annual terms, exports accelerated to 31.8% yoy (versus 15.5% in February), mainly driven by a 50.7% percent rise in machinery imports (21.5% in February), in particular agricultural machinery.
In addition, the value of energy imports rose at a faster pace than last year (by 2.1 times yoy). In particular, natural gas imports increased due to a low base of comparison, while imports of oil products rose, driven by rising global oil prices.
In March, net financial account inflows, at USD 427 million were generated by a further reduction in FX cash outside banks and rising trade credits.
Net FDI inflows amounted to USD 63 million, with the real sector being the main recipient of FDI.
As the overall BoP balance recorded a deficit of USD 355 million in March (in March 2016 – USD 859 million), international reserves decreased to USD 15.1 billion or 3.2 months of future imports.
See updated data for March 2017 under External Sector Statistics sectoin.
See the Macroeconomic and Monetary Review (April 2017), for greater details on macroeconomic developments in March, which will be published on 28 April 2017.