The sharp drop in the price of oil and the appreciation of the U.S. dollar against other foreign currencies caused the value of Lebanon’s imports to drop by more than 11 percent in 2015, a leading economist said Monday.

“Oil and fuel oil are among the largest import items in Lebanon and as a result of the fall in the prices of this commodity in international markets, the value of imports fell in 2015,” Marwan Barakat, the head of economic research at Bank Audi, told The Daily Star.

According to figures released by Lebanese Customs, import values fell 11.8 percent coupled with a 10.9 percent decline in export values for full-year 2015.

This has led to a 12 percent decrease in the value of foreign trade in 2015. Lebanon’s trade deficit contracted from $17.2 billion in 2014 to $15.1 billion in 2015.

Barakat added that the other reason behind the decline in import values last year was the appreciation of the U.S. dollar against other foreign currencies and especially the euro.

A big percent of Lebanon’s imports come from Europe and this has translated to a decline in the value of imported items from the continent.

Barakat believes if these two factors are adjusted or return to their old rates, then the value of Lebanon’s imports will definitely jump.

Lebanon used to import around $5 billion of oil and fuel oil each year when the prices of crude were in the higher bracket.

But when the prices of oil decreased sharply in 2015 the import bill for this item reached only $2 billion.

Although the drop in oil prices has led to a decline in the deficit of the state-owned Electricte du Liban, the duty collected on this commodity, such as customs and the value-added tax, have also shrunk.

Barakat said that despite the drop the trade deficit in 2015, the balance of payments last year recorded a deficit of $3.3 billion due to the fall in capital inflow to Lebanon, which also dropped by 25 percent.

“In principle the decline in the foreign trade deficit should improve the balance of payments. However, the balance-of-payments deficit increased from $1.4 billion in 2014 to $3.3 billion in 2015 as a result of a drop in the financial inflows to the country,” he explained.

“The breakdown of imports by category suggests that imports of mineral products [such as oil] posted the most significant decline of 29.6 percent year-on-year to make up 19.0 percent of total imports [from 23.8 percent in 2014], followed by metals and metal products with a decline of 22.7 percent, paper and paper products with a drop of 15.8 percent, jewelry with a drop of 15.8 percent, and livestock and animal products with a drop of 13.5 percent. On the other hand, the main item to have displayed a significant increase was transport vehicles with 16.6 percent over the same period,” Bank Audi’s Lebanon Weekly Monitor said.

It added that a breakdown of imports by country of origin in 2015 shows that imports from China, the biggest import source for Lebanon in 2015 with 11.5 percent of total imports, witnessed a drop of 16.5 percent year-on-year.

Imports from Italy, Germany, France and the United States also saw significant drop in value to Lebanon last year. Lebanon’s exports in 2015 also fell from $3.3 billion in 2014 to $3 billion in 2015.

“It is worth mentioning that land exports through Syria declined by 54.0 percent in 2015, moving from $721 million to $332 million, amid the insecurity of shipping routes for Lebanon’s land exports,” Bank Audi said.