Argentina reaches surplus target but exports in September plummeted 27%

Thursday, October 25th 2012 - 06:31 UTC

Full article 30 comments

There was a significant drop in car imports mainly from Brazil

Argentine exports in September experienced their largest drop since the 2009 financial crisis totalling 6.818bn dollars or 12% less than the same month a year ago, according to the latest report on the country’s foreign trade released by INDEC.

Commodities sales overseas plummeted 27% in September mainly because of a poor performance by grains and oilseeds. Manufactured goods fell 10% with significant drops for the metal, paper and cardboard, printing and chemical sectors. Agro-manufacturing was down 6%, but fuel and energy was up 2%.

On the imports side, they dropped 14% compared to September 2011, the eighth month on a row totalling 5.905bn dollars. Intermediate goods were down 23% and consumer goods, 21%. Capital goods, fuel and lubricants slid 3%.

“Imports of passenger cars decreased because of lesser purchases, particularly from Brazil”, points out INDEC. Brazil is Argentina’s main trade partner and a leading market for manufactured goods.

With this result the Argentine trade balance in September enjoyed a surplus of 911 million dollars, which is 1% over the same month a year ago.

In the nine months the trade balance has accumulated a surplus of 10.9bn dollars, which is above the target for the twelve months and is equivalent to a 34% increase over the same period in 2011.

Categories: Economy, Argentina, Brazil.

Tags: Argentina, Brazil, cars production, Indec.

Top Comments

Disclaimer & comment rules

Britworker
Ah, “points out INDEC” so how much do we add on to the deficit in real money?
Oct 25th, 2012 - 08:22 am 0
Rob the argentine
Yes, we got an small surplus but, as imports are frozen (forbidden) so many industries are shut down or going to within the next months.
Oct 25th, 2012 - 09:48 am 0
Welsh Wizard
I thought that the idea of this was to help exports...? Suplus targets are obviously met (in % terms against imports) as imports are sort of banned...but exports down? this is not good news and is the opposite of what the government expected to happen
Oct 25th, 2012 - 11:17 am 0

Read all comments

Commenting for this story is now closed.
If you have a Facebook account, become a fan and comment on our Facebook Page!