Argentine 2013 trade surplus down 27%, helping with the dollar shortage

Friday, January 24th 2014 - 02:09 UTC

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Energy and fuel imports make Argentina's trade balance most vulnerable

Argentina's trade balance during 2013 left of surplus of 9.24 billion dollars, 27% less than in the previous year (12.42bn), according to the latest release from the official stats office, indec. Exports in the past year grew by 3% to reach a value of 83bn dollars, while imports rose by 8% and totaled just over 74bn.

One of the biggest falls month by month was seen in December, when a surplus of 272m dollars translated to an overall fall of 67% compared to the same period in 2012. The overall surplus was also 1.5bn short of the announced target in the budget. The smaller trade surplus is one of the reasons of the dollar-shortage in Argentina which is pushing the greenback almost daily to new records both in the official and parallel markets. One of the items with strongest influence in the lower surplus is the energy bill with a deficit of 6.16bn dollars. Imports of fuel and energy last year climbed 23% to 11.41bn while exports dropped 24% to 5.25bn dollars. Exports of unprocessed commodities increased 1% to 19.3bn while agriculture processed goods increased 9% to 30.06bn and industrial manufacturing was up 3% totaling 28.41bn. Because of the energy bill, imports climbed 8% to 74bn. Imports of capital goods were up 8% to 12.76bn dollars; consumer goods increased 3% to 7.5bn; other goods and accessories, up 7% to 15.42bn and vehicle imports reached 7.09bn dollars, up 32%; intermediate goods were down 2% to 19.58bn dollars. Argentina's main trade partner last year was Mercosur, 28%, followed by China with 19% of exports and 23% of imports.

Categories: Economy, Energy & Oil, Investments, Politics, Argentina, Latin America, Mercosur.

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LEPRecon
According to INDEC the trade surplus is down 27%. So when we translate that into real figures it means that trade surplus is up by about 27%, probably due to all the LNG and oil that they've had to import.

They're not fooling anyone.
Jan 24th, 2014 - 06:26 am 0
Anglotino
Trade figures are harder to doctor because there is a corresponding figure from another country to balance it.

It is why China's suspect trade figures were so easy to see through

Mind you a 27% drop when your whole economy is geared to ensure a surplus is a major problem.
Jan 24th, 2014 - 07:20 am 0
Captain Poppy
Seems like stealing YFP worked out well for Argentina. Everything they've done thus far has backfired. Whether is was not paying them...which now they are to the debt default, which they are now negotiating the PC and ultimately will with the Singer group as well.

Seems they never took having to borrow into account when they decided to default. Bug Eyed Nestor must be chuckling in his grave.

Remember when Hussein was ousted and the people tore his statues and murals down? When the RG's reach their saturation point maybe they will dig Bug Eyed up up and burn him.
Jan 24th, 2014 - 10:24 am 0

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