Vienna, Sep 9 (IANS): The Austrian trade deficit has almost halved in the first half of 2015, decreasing from 1.6 bn euros ($1.78 bn) to 870 mn euros ($973.8 mn), Statistics Austria said late Tuesday.

The result came about from a stronger 1.4 percent increase in exports to 64.37 bn euros ($72 bn) compared to a much lower 0.2 percent increase in imports to a total of 65.24 bn euros ($73 bn).

Trade with fellow European Union member states resulted in a 1.34-billion-euro deficit ($1.5 bn), despite a 1.2 percent increase in exports to 44.51 bn euros ($49.8 bn) and a 0.9 percent decrease in imports down to 45.85 bn euros ($51.3 bn).

A surplus of 470 mn euros ($526.1 mn) was recorded for non-European countries, the statistics office said, though this was lower than the 2014 result of 675 mn euros ($755.3 mn).

Exports increased 1.8 percent or 19.86 bn euros ($22.2 bn) overall, while imports increased 3 percent to 19.39 bn euros ($21.6 bn).

Austria's most important trading partner was once again Germany, while outside of the EU, China proved the biggest source of imports, showing an increase of 11.5 percent.

Meanwhile, the United States was the biggest destination market for Austrian exports, increasing 19.6 percent up to June.