The balance of foreign trade in goods and services in Ukraine recorded a deficit of $1.261 billion in January-March 2017, which was 23.8% down from deficit at $1.655 year-over-year (y-o-y), according to the website of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU).
The deficit of foreign trade in commodities grew by 11.8% in Q1 2017, to $1.711 billion y-o-y, while the surplus of foreign trade in services rose by 1.6 times, to $450 million.
The deficit of foreign trade was estimated at $498 million in March 2017, including $630 million deficit of trade in goods and a $132 million surplus of trade in services.
It is noted that the data do not include information from the temporarily occupied territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, as well as the Anti-Terrorist Operation zone.
Earlier, the foreign trade balance of Ukraine recorded a surplus of $337.3 million in 2016, which was 11 times lower than the surplus recorded in 2015 at $3.828 billion, according to the State Statistics Service.
At the same time, the balance of foreign trade in goods and services showed a deficit of $5.581 billion in 2016, according to data released by the National Bank of Ukraine.