The trade deficit has deepened, reaching €5,836.6 million in the first eight months of 2023, a notable jump from €5,216.4 million during the same timeframe in 2022. This information was released yesterday evening by the Statistical Service.

Breaking this down further, there's been a surge in imports during January–August 2023, hitting €8,610.2 million, up 10.7% from €7,778.1 million in the same period of 2022. Meanwhile, exports have risen as well, totaling €2,773.6 million, an 8.3% increase from €2,561.7 million in 2022.

August 2023 exports stood out with an impressive 53.7% surge, totaling €414.3 million. In comparison, August 2022 saw €269.6 million in exports. However, imports weren't left behind, recording an 11.3% growth, moving from €973.9 million in 2022 to €1,083.6 million in 2023.

Diving deeper into August's data:

• Imports from EU states reached €608.3 million, with third-country imports at €475.4 million. These figures contrast with €628.2 million and €345.7 million, respectively, from August 2022.

• Exports to the EU were €72 million, while third-country exports soared to €342.3 million. The corresponding figures for August 2022 were €79.9 million and €189.8 million.

Significantly, August 2023's figures included transfers of economic ownership of mobile transport equipment, with the value for imports at €170.3 million and exports at €109.5 million.

July 2023 saw total goods imports of €1,079.8 million, a 3.3% growth from €1,045.5 million in 2022. Domestic product exports witnessed a 30.7% jump, amounting to €227.3 million, up from €173.9 million the previous year. However, foreign product exports dipped by 37.7% to €157.9 million from €253.3 million in 2022.

In a different topic, the Output Prices Index in Construction for Q2 2023 reached 135.03 units (using 2015 as the base year), marking a 4.3% increase year-on-year. The index also went up by 1.5% compared to the previous quarter. Differentiating by project type, buildings saw a minor 0.5% uptick, while civil engineering projects witnessed a significant 18.9% growth.

Moreover, the second quarter of 2023 had the Index of Production in Construction climb to 203.62 units, showing a 7.4% increase from Q2 2022. The quarter-on-quarter increase was also notable at 10.64%. Analyzing by project type, buildings experienced a 9.0% growth, whereas civil engineering projects slightly declined by 1.4%.