GUS: Trade deficit down; Food prices down; Financial institutions earn less

GUS data shows that exports declined by 8.2% to $8.6 billion while imports went down 6.6% to $14 billion. In related news, other GUS data indicates that the prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages fell by 0.5% and 0.4% respectively. GUS also reported a general worsening of earnings by banks and insurance companies. Since the beginning of the year, banks and insurance firms had revenues of zl. 2 billion which is 8% less than earnings for the same period last year. Brokerage houses, however, had a 20% increase in revenues - the best performance in the financial sector. (Prawo i Gospodarka, page 1, Reuters)