Cyprus’ trade path in the opening months of 2024

The Cyprus Statistical Service (Cystat) on Tuesday released a report showing the total imports and exports of goods in January-February 2024.

In February the import was €841.1 million, representing an increase of 9.2 per cent compared to €770.5 million in February 2023. Specifically, imports from other EU Member States amounted to €543.8 million, while those from third countries stood at €297.3 million.

This contrasts with €536.2 million and €234.2 million respectively in February 2023.

Notably, imports in February 2024 include the transfer of economic ownership of vessels, with a total value of €1.9 million, a significant decrease from €56.8 million in February 2023.

Furthermore, total exports of goods in February 2024 were €243.1 million, marking a decrease of 6.8 per cent from €260.8 million in February 2023.

Exports to other EU Member States were €116.2 million and to third countries €126.9 million, compared to €65.1 million and €195.7 million respectively in the previous year.

Additionally, the exports in February 2024 include the transfer of economic ownership of vessels, valued at €21.7 million, down from €87.6 million in February 2023.

On a broader scale, total imports of goods for January–February 2024 amounted to €1,698.4 million, which is a substantial decrease of 32.2 per cent from €2,505.6 million in January–February 2023.

Similarly, total exports of goods in the same period were €554.1 million, a slight decline of 3.8 per cent from €576.0 million in January–February 2023.

Consequently, the trade deficit narrowed to €1,144.4 million in January–February 2024, compared to €1,929.6 million in the corresponding period of 2023.

Looking at January 2024 alone, the final data reveals that total imports of goods plummeted to €857.3 million from €1,735.1 million in January 2023, recording a stark decrease of 50.6 per cent.

On the export side, exports of domestically produced products, including stores and provisions, in January 2024 slightly increased by 1.8 per cent to €143.2 million from €140.7 million in January 2023.

More specifically, domestic exports of industrial products in January 2024 were €133.9 million compared to €132.7 million in January 2023, while domestic exports of agricultural products rose to €8.2 million from €7.3 million in the same period.

Lastly, exports of foreign products, including stores and provisions, in January 2024 were €167.8 million, down by 3.8 per cent from €174.5 million in January 2023.