KIEV, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) -- Ukraine's trade balance turned to a deficit of 6.8 billion U.S. dollars in 2016, after a surplus of 632.5 million dollars in the previous year, official figures showed on Tuesday.
Last year, Ukraine's total foreign trade stood at 74 billion dollars, with exports shrinking by 5.2 percent to 33.6 billion dollars and imports rising 3.8 percent to 40.4 billion dollars, the National Bank of Ukraine said in a statement.
The decline in exports has reflected the challenging pricing situation on world commodity markets, trade restrictions imposed by Russia and internal logistic issues, the bank said.
Meanwhile, the overall economic recovery has spurred the domestic demand and contributed to the increase in imports, it said.
