A Belgrade-based economic newsletter said on Monday that Serbia’s foreign trade deficit stood at more than a billion Euro in May 2022, the highest ever recorded.

“Serbia had the highest every monthly foreign trade deficit of 1.141 billion Euro in May … with exports covering 73 percent of imports compared to the average of 76 percent in 2021 and 68 percent in the February-May period of 2022,” the Macroeconomic Analyses and Trends (MAT) newsletter said.

It added that the foreign trade deficit did not drop below the level of one billion Euro in the previous three months with the the record high reached in May.

MAT said that the fastest growth of imports was recorded by the energy industry, reaching almost triple the level of the 2021 average in May alone with intermediary product imports growing by 33 percent, capital products by 26 percent and consumer goods by 16 percent.

Growth of exports were reported for metal ore, base metals, the food industry, chemical industry, rubber and plastics industry, coal and oil derivatives, electrical equipment, machinery and equipment and paper. “Exports from Serbia in the first five months of this year rose y.o.y. by 30.3 percent and imports by 47.8 percent, it said adding that the biggest growth of 52 percent was in the first two months of the year.

MAT said that industrial production rose by 8.7 percent.

Serbia’s y.o.y. inflation in April and May 2022 stood at 9.5 and 10.1 percent, MAT said.