The trade deficit widened in May. With a monthly rebound in imports and a strong impact of the drought on exports, the negative balance was US$1,154 million, higher than the red of US$193 million registered in April, INDEC reported yesterday.
The report of the Argentine Commercial Exchange showed that last month’s exports totaled US$6,203 million, which implied a year-on-year drop of 24.8%. And, as anticipated by Ámbito, imports exceeded US$7,000 million and were at the highest level in nine months. Specifically, they reached US$7,357 million, which represented a decrease of 6.7% year-on-year but an increase compared to previous months.
In this way, Argentina accumulated in the first five months of the year a negative balance of US$2,690 million, due to the effect of the historic drought.
With regard to shipments abroad, the item most affected was that of Primary Products (PP) which marked a decline of 37.2% year-on-year, adding sales of US$1,329 million. In this chapter, the impact of the weather problems on the sales of the coarse crop (soybeans and corn) was felt, despite the third edition of the soybean dollar.
Meanwhile, also complicated by the drought, Manufactures of Agricultural Origin (MOA) marked a drop of 29% year-on-year, with a turnover of US$2,588 million. In this case, the strong decrease was mainly due to the decline in exports derived from grains.
For their part, exports of Manufactures of Industrial Origin (MOI) fell 9.1% year-on-year and totaled US$1,755 million. While the Fuel and Energy (C&E) category reflected a decrease of 5.5% to US$531 million.
“PP exports registered a negative variation due to a decrease of 34.4% in quantities and 4.1% in prices, in the annual comparison. The decrease was mainly due to lower sales of cereals (USD 917 million), which was the sub-heading that registered the greatest drop,” said the INDEC report.
While the reduction in MOA was due to a 16.2% year-on-year drop in prices and a 15.3% drop in quantities. In contrast, the value of MOI exports decreased as a result of an 11.8% drop in prices, since quantities increased 3.2%.
Regarding imports, the US$7,357 million in May confirmed what Ámbito had anticipated weeks ago: that last month, supported by an increase in commercial debt (especially from large companies with their parent companies) and the approval of SIRAS in yuan (thanks to the activation of the swap with China), the Government validated a rise in purchases abroad compared to previous months (in April they had been US$6,017 million) to sustain as much as possible the economic activity in a context of scarcity of foreign exchange.
The economic use that fell the most was Fuels and Lubricants, with a variation of 38.6% due to a drop of 24.2% in quantities and 19.8% in prices, which in both cases had set record levels in 2022.
On the other hand, Intermediate Goods presented a decrease of 3.1%, as a consequence of a decrease in prices of 12.2%, since the quantities increased 10.3%. Consumer Goods fell 2.2% due to a 7.3% drop in prices as quantities increased 5.4%. Passenger motor vehicles grew 47.4%: prices rose 5.8% and quantities, 38.9%. Capital goods imports increased 6.2% due to a 6.5% rise in quantities (prices fell 0.2%). Parts and accessories of capital goods rose 5.9%, due to a rise in quantities and prices of 0.9% and 5.0%, respectively.
Source: Ambito
