Business, Export, Good for Business, Industry, Lithuania, Russia

The government's export promotion agency now expects exports of Lithuanian-origin goods to grow by 8.4% this year compared with 2017 to 13.5 bln euros, up from its 6% growth projection, to 13.2 bln euros, released in the spring. 

Re-exports are forecast to increase by 6.1% to 10.8 bln euros, down from the previous estimate of 9.3% growth to 11.1 bln euros. 

Vadim Ivanov, the chief analyst at Enterprise Lithuania, says the upward revision for Lithuanian-origin goods reflects a much stronger-than-expected growth in these exports in the first half of 2018, while the downward revision for re-exports is due to uncertainties in the Russian market. 

"Demand for imports in Russia, our key re-export market, increased at a much slower-than-expected pace this year. There were new sanctions, whose number was increased in the second half of the year, and there were problems with the ruble exchange rate. These fluctuations caused a slower rate of growth in (Russia's) imports and, consequently, in (Lithuania's) re-exports," he said. 

Re-exports' share of Lithuania's total exports fell to 39% in the first half of 2018, from 42% a year earlier.