Exports and imports reached a record high in March

In March, Estonia’s exports of goods amounted to almost 2 billion euros and imports to nearly 2.2 billion euros at current prices. The trade deficit was 191 million euros and grew by about 3 million euros compared to March 2021.

Evelin Puura, leading analyst at Statistics Estonia, said that, year on year, export prices have risen by 24% and import prices by 27%, which has had a strong impact on trade turnover. “In March as well as in the first quarter in general, trade was significantly influenced by the exports and imports of mineral fuels and electricity, wood and articles of wood, agricultural products and food preparations, and base metals and articles of base metal,” added Puura.

The main commodities exported in March were mineral fuels and electricity, electrical equipment, and wood and articles of wood. Compared to March 2021, the biggest increase occurred in the exports of mineral fuels, which grew by 229 million euros. The exports of base metals and articles of base metal (incl. metal structures) grew by 58 million euros, and the exports of wood and articles of wood (incl. coniferous wood strips, glue-laminated timber) by 48 million euros.

The main partner country for Estonia’s exports of goods was Finland, followed by Latvia and Sweden. The main commodities exported were parts for engines and metal structures to Finland, electricity to Latvia, and prefabricated wooden buildings and communication equipment to Sweden. The biggest increase occurred in exports to Latvia, Finland and Greece. More electricity was exported to Latvia, there were larger dispatches of metal structures to Finland, and bigger dispatches of mineral fuels to Greece.

Re-exports from Estonia increased by 51% and exports of domestic goods by 29%. Goods of Estonian origin accounted for 70% of the total exports of goods. In the case of goods of Estonian origin, the biggest rise occurred in the exports of processed fuels, scrap metal and prefabricated wooden buildings.

The main commodities imported to Estonia were mineral fuels and electricity, electrical equipment, base metals and articles of base metal, and raw materials and products of chemical industry. The imports of mineral fuels (incl. natural gas and motor fuel) and electricity increased the most (up by 111 million euros), followed by imports of base metals and articles of base metal (up by 91 million euros) and imports of raw materials and products of chemical industry (incl. compound fertilisers, nitrogenous fertilisers) (up by 68 million euros).

The top partner countries for Estonia’s imports of goods were Finland, Lithuania and Germany. The biggest rise was recorded in imports from Finland, Lithuania and Russia. There were greater imports of electricity from Finland, bigger imports of motor fuels from Lithuania, and increased imports of mineral fuels from Russia.

Statistics Estonia performs the statistical activity “Foreign trade” for the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications with the aim to determine how exporting and importing enterprises are performing in Estonia.

See also the foreign trade section on our website. Visualised data of Estonia’s foreign trade can be viewed in Statistics Estonia’s application.

More detailed data have been published in the statistical database. Due to rounding, the sum of rows in some tables may differ from the sum total of the column.