Analytics, Baltic Export, EU – Baltic States, Foreign trade

Even though Latvia's exports decreased less than exports from the neighbor countries, the total volume of Latvian exports remains smaller than that of Estonia and Lithuania. Latvia's exports in 2009 totaled EUR 5.5 billion, compared to EUR 6.5 billion in Estonia and EUR 11.8 billion in Lithuania.

Of all the EU member states, the smallest decreases in exports were reported by Ireland – 4%, Luxembourg – 13%, and Romania – 14%.

The EU's largest exporters are Germany, Netherlands and France, with exports at respectively EUR 803.9 billion, EUR 357.3 billion and EUR 341.6 billion last year.

The EU imports also dropped down last year, with the largest decreases observed in the Baltic countries – 38% in Lithuania, 37% in Latvia and 33% in Estonia. The smallest decreases were registered in Germany and France – 17%, and Austria and Portugal – 18%.

As imports decreased more than exports, Latvia's foreign trade deficit in 2009 shrank to EUR 1.4 billion, compared to EUR 4.1 billion in 2008.

Germany had the largest foreign trade surplus of EUR 135.8 billion, followed by Netherlands with EUR 37.9 billion and Ireland with EUR 37.4 billion.

On the other hand, Great Britain had the largest deficit – EUR 92.6 billion, France's deficit was EUR 54.5 billion, and France's deficit was EUR 49.5 billion.