Argentina exported a record US$7.352 billion last month, 28.5 percent than the previous month, thanks to the increase in world commodity prices due to the war in Ukraine.
Only 4.9 percent of this increase was due to volume, revealed the INDEC national statistics bureau last Wednesday.
The March imports of US$7.073 billion registered an even higher increase of 33 percent, breaking down into a 16.7 percent increase in volume and 13.7 percent in price terms.
Manufactured food products represented 36.7 percent of overseas sales at almost US$2.7 billion, followed by primary produce (28.6 percent), manufactured industrial goods (26.1 percent) and fuels (8.5 percent), the latter with a year-on-year increase of 118.1 percent.
At the same time fuels, intermediate goods (used to manufacture other products) and capital goods represented over three-quarters of the increase in March imports.
Argentina’s trade volume last month was US$14.425 billion, 30.7 percent higher than the previous month, with a trade surplus of US$279 million for the 15th month running in the black.
Imports in the first quarter of this year totalled US$17.958 billion, the highest quarterly figure ever.
After Brazil (12.7 percent), Argentina’s main customers were the United States, (7.5 percent), Chile (6.6 percent) and China (6.5 percent) while the imports came from China (24.5 percent), Brazil (19.2 percent), the United States (8.3 percent) and Germany (3.5 percent).
Argentina ran a trade deficit of US$388 million with Brazil, its leading partner, last month.
– TIMES/AFP
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