Please note that this press release was corrected 31 August 2017 at 13:00
Balance of trade
January-July 2017, the value of exported goods from Iceland amounted to ISK 280,000 million fob and the value of imported goods amounted to ISK 388,800 million fob (ISK 414,400 million cif). Thus there was a trade deficit, calculated on fob value, of almost ISK 108,900 million as compared with a trade deficit of ISK 79,900 million in the same time the year before. In comparison was the trade deficit of the whole last year ISK 108,200 million, at current rates of exchange.¹ The trade deficit for the January-July period this year is thus larger than the deficit for the whole year 2016, at current rate of exchange.
Exports
The total value of exports of goods January-July 2017 was ISK 38,900 million lower, or 12.2%, than in the same period the year before at current rates of exchange. Exported manufacturing products contributed 55.7% of total exported goods and their value was 3.3% lower than in the same period the year before, mainly because of medicine and medical products. However the exports of aluminium increased. Marine products contributed 37.7% of the total exports and their value was 23.9% lower than in the same period the year before, mainly because of fresh fish and frozen fish fillets.
Imports
The total value of imports of goods January-July 2017 was ISK 3,900 million lower, or 1%, than in the same period the year before, at current rates of exchange. The import of industrial supplies, ships, fuels and passenger cars increased while the import of airplanes and consumer goods decreased.
| The value of exports and imports January–July 2016 and 2017 | |||
| Million ISK at current exchange rate | Change on prev. | ||
| January– | January– | year at current | |
| July | July | exch. rates, % | |
| 2016 | 2017 | Jan.–July | |
| Exports fob, total | 318,807.1 | 279,956.9 | -12.2 |
| Marine products | 138,776.0 | 105,622.7 | -23.9 |
| Agricultural products | 8,683.1 | 10,919.0 | 25.8 |
| Manufacturing products | 161,178.2 | 155,811.0 | -3.3 |
| Other products | 10,169.8 | 7,604.1 | -25.2 |
| Imports fob, total | 392,737.3 | 388,834.4 | 14.7 |
| Food and beverages | 33,382.0 | 32,426.1 | 12.9 |
| Industrial supplies n.e.s. | 100,989.6 | 103,705.9 | 21.1 |
| Fuels and lubricants | 37,663.8 | 40,713.7 | 33.6 |
| Capital goods (except for transport) | 84,908.7 | 84,132.8 | 14.2 |
| Transport equipment | 84,370.0 | 79,649.3 | 5.3 |
| Consumer goods n.e.s. | 51,094.1 | 48,044.8 | 7.6 |
| Goods n.e.s. | 329.2 | 161.9 | -40.8 |
| Balance of trade | -73,930.1 | -108,877.4 | . |
¹ Statistics Iceland does no longer publish trade in goods at constant exchange rates. The breakdown of trade in goods by currencies is available on Statistics Iceland’s website.
Monthly figures of external trade for current year are revised together with the release of figures for new months. Annual figures are published in the first half of the year after the end of the reference year. The figures are considered as final at that point of time.