Belgian-Macedonian Business Club

BMBC takes a look at the trade statistics from February 2024 between Belgium and North Macedonia, as published by Eurostat.

What do we see?

From North Macedonia to Belgium, Transport Materials (ie. Buses produced by Van Hool) take 76 % of the value. Textiles follow w/12 %. Numbers increased by 5 % from 2023, and far ahead of 2022. This relates to the decrease by Bulgaria (-27 %) and Albania (-15 %) for the first two months.

It also shows: North Macedonia does 50 times more exports than Albania, and this largely but not only due to one foreign investor. Even without the buses, it would be 10 times more than our less industrialized neighbor. But EU-member Bulgaria does 7 times more exports – metals and metal products are the key export articles of Bulgaria.

On the import side, there is no clear favorite goods category, industry in Belgium is very diversified. Macedonian imports increased by 21 % vs. 2023, which saw a 53 % increase vs. 2022. It has to be mentioned that the numbers are small and specifically for machinery, one deal might have a big impact on the statistics.

Bulgaria saw a decrease of 23 %, Albania an increase of 36 % but at a much lower level. Again, Bulgaria imports almost 6 times as much as North Macedonia, Albania 24 % of the Macedonian volume – again EU country and industrialisation as key components.

Bulgaria manages a positive trade balance, North Macedonia can cover 87 % of its imports while Albania is at 8 %.

Last but not least, how much value per ton of goods? This shows the complexity of the goods traded. With 11 K€/ton, North Macedonia is in the lead, vs. 8 K€ for Bulgaria and 2.8 K€ for Albania. Similar picture with lower values for the imports. This depends very much on the structure of the goods flow.

Source: Belgian Foreign Trade Agency