The trade balance was positive for the 13th consecutive month. Last year’s result was the highest since records began.
The trade surplus grew in December and in the accumulated amount of 2024 it was US$18,899 million, the highest number since there are records. It happened both due to a significant increase in exports, thanks to the agriculture and energy sector, and due to a sharp drop in imports due to the recession and delays in payments during the first part of the year.
As reported by the INDEC This Friday, in the last month of the year the trade balance gave a positive result of US$1,666 milliongreater than the previous three months. It was the 13th month in a row with a favorable balance for the country.
The increase in the surplus was mainly due to the exportswhich rose 33.4% year-on-year and totaled some US$7,035 million, above the average of recent months. For their part, the imports They rose 26.2% compared to a year ago to US$5,369 million, a figure that was just below the average for the second half of the year.
It is worth highlighting the drop year-on-year comparison basisgiven that December 2023 was marked by a turbulent change of Government, which included a strong devaluation of the currency, a general climate of uncertainty and the maintenance (and in some cases deepening) of controls at the exchange rate, a combo that stopped many operations linked to foreign trade.
With these numbers, External sales accumulated some US$79,721 million in 2024which meant a improvement of 19.4% (+US$12,932 million) versus 2023 and represented the second highest mark in history, only behind that of 2022.
Manufactures of agricultural origin (MOA) and primary products (PP) drove the jump with advances of 24.6% and 27%, respectively. It is also worth clarifying in this case the low base of comparison, a consequence of the serious drought that the country went through during the last year of the Frente de Todos administration.
At the product level, within these divisions, soybeans and their derivatives (flour and oil) stood out particularly, with an additional contribution of more than US$5.7 billion compared to the previous year.
Source: Ambito
