“We see exports growing again after a decline in May, which resulted from repairs at Orlen refinery,” Mačiulis told BNS in comments on the country’s exports performance in June.

He projected that Lithuania’s exports to Sweden should continue growing.

The analyst also noted that the growth of exports to the euro zone countries was slowing down or even stalling.

For example, exports to Germany fell by 2.9 percent in the first half of this year from a year ago, and exports to France shrank by 0.7 percent, he said adding that this was a direct consequence of the debt crisis in the euro zone. Meanwhile, the growth of exports to the neighboring countries that were not hit by the crisis, i.e. Latvia, Estonia, Sweden, as well as to almost all CIS countries was speeding up.

A decline in foreign trade deficit to 1.34 billion litas in the second quarter of this year was a positive trend as well, the analyst said.

“However, Lithuania should not expect its foreign trade to get balanced as long as it remains dependent on the imports of electricity and other energy resources,” Mačiulis said.

Lithuania’s exports rose by 7.3 percent in the first half of this year compared with a year ago, to 35.615 billion litas (EUR 10.3b), and its imports went up by 4.6 percent, to 39.821 billion litas, the country’s statistics office said earlier on Thursday.

Lithuania’s foreign trade deficit narrowed by 13.8 percent, year-on-year, to reach 4.206 billion litas between January and June, according to non-final data based on customs declarations and Intrastat reports.

In June versus May, exports soared by 20.3 percent, to 6.385 billion litas, while imports went up by 21.1 percent, to 6.875 billion litas.