This report presents the final monthly statistics on exports, imports and the resulting balance of trade in goods (BOT-G) for the year 2008.

Final export figures include export documents that were received after the cut-off dates. Table 1 shows a comparison of the preliminary and final series of exports for 2008 by month. Similarly, final imports data considered actual import documents received by the NSO after the cut-off dates. Table 2 shows the preliminary and final series of imports for 2008 and Table 3 the resulting preliminary and final series of the BOT-G.

As shown in Table 1, the final export figure was recorded at US$49,078 million from US$49,025 million for the period January to December 2008. For the same period, the final value of total imports was US$56,746 million, an increase of US$100 million from US$56,646 million (Table 2). The resulting trade balance in goods amounted to a deficit of US$7,669 million, an increase of US$48 million from the preliminary series of US$7,620 million deficit (Table 3).