Colombia registered in August a mixed readjustment of its trade balance with the main economies of Latin America and with its neighbors or similar peers.
This concludes from the review of the trade balance report carried out by the National Administrative Department of Statistics (Dane), whose most recent version is that of last August.
(This year 7 gas exploration wells have been successful).
In general terms, it is worth specifying that in that month the country registered a trade deficit of US$9,373 million, as a result of registering imports for US$48,511 million, while exports were US$39,138 million.
Now, delving into the region, at least by bloc, it is important to point out that at a joint level, the country achieved a surplus of US$1,861.1 million under the umbrella of the Latin American Integration Association (Aladi), a figure that contrasts too much with the result of a year ago, when it was a trade deficit of US$775.4 million.
When further segmenting and talking about the Andean Community of Nations (CAN), there is also evidence of a surplus of US$442 million for the August cut, a positive figure, although lower than last year, of also a surplus of 572, 9 million.
Within this select group of Andean countries, for example, beyond the surplus with Ecuador or the deficit with Bolivia, the case of Peru stands out. With an economy similar to Colombia’s in many respects, a trade surplus of US$64.2 million was achieved with Lima last August, however, this figure is slightly lower than the US$198.7 million of commercial advantage that was achieved last year.
(Colombia doubles its commitment to diversify its exports).
In 2021 imports from Peru were US$486.2 million while exports reached US$684.9 million. This year, external sales reached US$715.3 million and purchases US$651.1 million.
Now, when expanding the range of analysis locating Chile, another of the economies similar to Colombia, it is found that it manages a similar pattern to what was experienced the previous year. In 2022, a surplus of US$468 million was recorded versus a trade advantage of US$271.3 million.
In particular, an increase in exports stood out from US$660 million in 2021 to US$1,078.9 million in the current year. Imports, meanwhile, also grew from US$388.7 million to US$610.9 million.
Regarding commercial activity with Mexico, the second largest economy in Latin America and a member of the Pacific Alliance, in August the country once again recorded a level of trade deficit, although slightly higher than that seen last year. Specifically, the imbalance with the Aztec country totaled US$1,498.2 million in 2022, slightly higher than the US$1,491.4 million registered in 2021.
In particular, it is worth highlighting the increase in Colombian foreign sales to this North American country to US$1,107.9 million from US$717.5 million; while the pace of internal purchases slowed down slightly as they went from US$2,208.9 million last year to US$2,606.2 million for the current year.
In the case of Brazil, the most important economy in the region, the trade deficit went from US$736.5 million in August 2021 to US$1,543,1 million for the eighth month of 2022. This behavior was explained mainly by the increase of purchases from the Amazonian country, which moved from US$1,950.5 to US$3,150.5 million.
Among other analyses, it is worth highlighting the reduction of the trade deficit with Argentinafrom US$554.2 million to US$489 million in August 2022, driven by growth in sales abroad.
In turn, trade with Venezuela resulted in a positive balance of US350.9 million for the month of August; little more than double the US$145.7 million reached in the middle of last year.
There is still little time to evaluate the commercial performance since the reopening of the border.
Exports to the neighboring country reached US$400.3 million, while imports totaled US$49.4 million.
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