14 October 2019 - According to the preliminary data on foreign trade exchange from the Statistical Office of Montenegro, in the first eight months of 2019, Montenegro has exported goods worth 263,4 million EUR.
Compared with the same period last year, the export remained at the same level. The data shows that this year, Montenegro mostly exports aluminium, electricity and bauxite.
Ms Jadranka Kaluđerović, economic analyst and director of the Institute for Strategic Studies and Projections, said to Pobjeda daily that the structure of Montenegro’s export “clearly indicates that it relies on natural and not human resources”.
"Montenegrin exports still rely more on what nature has given us, rather than on our knowledge," Kaluđerovic said. In order to achieve the goal – to rely on knowledge, Montenegro must, first of all, invest in the knowledge of children.
“Only the market can show what will dominate in the future. I hope new products, the result of our youth’s ideas, will take over: new applications, software, new organizational solutions, new platforms to connect and more”, said Ms Kaluđerović.
In the structure of exports, the most represented products are classified by material in the amount of 66,5 million EUR, which are made of non-ferrous metals, that is, primarily aluminium with a share of 42.7 million EUR and iron and steel with 13.75 million EUR. This shows that products by Aluminijski kombinat and Toščelik are still dominant in the export structure.
The export of aluminium has declined by 19% in the first eight months of 2019.
In the same period, iron and steel export have increased by 5,2%. The value of total exported electricity amounted to 42,17 million EUR, by 11% more than in the same period last year.
MONSTAT shows that the export of mineral ore, bauxite primarily, amounted to 31,6 million EUR.
Total Montenegro’s foreign trade exchange amounted to 1,99 billion EUR, by 2,1% more compared with the same period last year.
Imports amounted to 15,3%, less than in the same period last year.
The biggest foreign trading partners in export were Serbia (63,2 million EUR), Hungary (31,5 million EUR) and Bosnia and Herzegovina (20,6 million EUR).
Read more about the business environment in Montenegro at TMN's dedicated page.
