Argentina’s trade volume fell 14.9% in 2020, but with US$12.5B surplus

Argentina’s 2020 trade volume was US$97.24 billion, 14.9 percent down from the previous year, but with a trade surplus of US$12.528 billion, the INDEC statistics bureau reported on Tuesday.

December weighed in with the only trade deficit of the year, US$364 million from exports of US$3.544 billion and imports of US$3.908 billion.

In all 12 months of 2020, exports totalled US$54.884 billion, 15.7 percent less than the previous year (down 13.2 percent in volume and 2.9 percent in price) while imports were US$42.356 billion, 13.8 percent less than in 2019 (with volume down 10.7 percent and prices 3.5 percent lower).

Argentina’s main trade partner was Brazil with US$7.956 billion in exports and US$8.685 billion in imports, followed by China (US$5.394 billion in exports and US$8.664 billion in imports) with the United States (US$3.313 billion in exports and US$4.414 billion in imports) in third place – negative figures with all three despite the overall surplus.

In 2020 industrial exports fell off 30.7 percent, farm produce 9.1 percent, fuel and energy 19.3 percent and primary products in general 7.4 percent.

On the import side, capital goods dropped 13 percent, intermediate goods 2.1 percent, fuel and lubricants 40.6 percent and capital goods accessories 25 percent. Consumer goods and passenger cars also registered falls of 4.7 and 31.7 percent, respectively. ​

– TIMES/AFP