Serbia’s foreign trade deficit for January to June stands at 3,707.6 million euros, down 14.1 percent year on year, while export coverage of imports climbed to 82.9 percent.
Serbia’s foreign trade deficit for the first six months of 2026 stands at 3,707.6 million euros, down 14.1 percent from the same period last year, the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia (RZS) reported on Friday. Export coverage of imports, the share of the import bill a country pays for with its own exports, rose to 82.9 percent from 79.4 percent a year earlier.
Total trade for January to June came to 39,650.5 million euros, up 5.8 percent. Exports were worth 17,971.4 million euros, an increase of 8.3 percent, while imports reached 21,679.1 million euros, up 3.7 percent. Exports are growing more than twice as fast as imports, which is where the narrower gap comes from.
Why does the same trade show two different growth rates?
In dollar terms the figures look considerably stronger: total trade of 46,238.2 million dollars and growth of 13 percent, exports of 20,954.3 million dollars and a gain of 15.7 percent, imports of 25,283.9 million dollars and a gain of 10.9 percent. The goods have not changed, the exchange rate has. The dollar is weaker against the euro than it was a year ago, so the same shipment converts into a bigger dollar number.
The deficit behaves the same way. Measured in dollars it is 4,329.6 million and 7.9 percent lower, measured in euros it is 3,707.6 million and 14.1 percent lower. For an economy that does most of its business with the euro area, the euro figure is the one that counts.
The pace of improvement slowed in June
The office’s five-month release showed the deficit falling 22.9 percent in euro terms, with import coverage at 83.1 percent. The half-year reading gives a decline of 14.1 percent and coverage of 82.9 percent. Both indicators point the same way, and the gap between the two releases means one thing: in June imports grew faster than exports.
That does not change the direction of the first half, but it does change the projection. If June’s dynamic repeats over the summer, the full-year drop in the deficit will end up closer to single digits than double digits, and coverage will struggle to stay above 83 percent.
Germany buys, China sells
European Union member states account for 58.7 percent of all Serbian trade. The largest individual buyers of Serbian goods in the first half were:
Germany, 3,167.4 million dollars
Italy, 1,803.9 million dollars
China, 1,182.1 million dollars
Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1,138.8 million dollars
Hungary, 935.2 million dollars
On the import side China leads with 3,927.5 million dollars, followed by Germany with 2,941 million, Italy with 1,735.1 million, Turkey with 1,279.9 million and Hungary with 1,037.5 million dollars. Serbia’s largest bilateral deficit is with China, and the office attributes it mainly to imports of telephones for cellular networks. Kazakhstan, Turkey and Poland come next.
CEFTA runs the other way. Serbia posts a surplus of 1,852 million dollars with those markets and import coverage of 303 percent, meaning three dollars of exports for every dollar imported. The surplus rests on grain and grain products, beverages, road vehicles, medicines and electrical machinery.
What Serbia sells and what it buys
Electrical machinery and appliances lead the export side with 2,223 million dollars, ahead of road vehicles at 2,184.4 million dollars. Imports are topped by the same category, electrical machinery and appliances at 1,818.7 million dollars, with petroleum and petroleum products right behind at 1,629.9 million dollars.
By region, Vojvodina takes the largest share of exports at 29.6 percent, while the Belgrade region dominates imports with 43.3 percent. The office notes that regional trade is recorded by the seat of the owner of the goods at the moment the customs declaration is accepted, so oil and gas imports are booked largely in Vojvodina and Belgrade even though those energy products serve the whole country. No data is available for the Kosovo and Metohija region.
The seven-month reading comes with the office’s next monthly release.
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