July 4, 2023, 4:00 AM
July 4, 2023, 4:00 AM
He money that had to be allocated for the importation of gasoline and diesel in the period 2020-2022 it went from $us 768 million to $us 4,231 million. This means that the state coffers had to allocate resources more than five times (550%) to that of 2020.
The data was provided by the millennium foundation that was supported by the National Institute of Statistics (INE), where it is detailed that during 2020 $us 768 million were allocated for the liquid import. In 2021 the amount rose to $us 2,132 million, while in 2022 it ‘shot’ to $us 4,231 million.
Jorge Gumucio, a hydrocarbons analyst at the Milenio Foundation, said that the increase in the value of the imports causes a negative trade balance in hydrocarbons (deficit) that affects the country’s economy.
From 2018 to 2021 the value of hydrocarbon exports was always higher than fuel imports. For example, in 2018 hydrocarbons worth $3,006 million were exported and liquids were imported for $1,135 million, achieving a favorable trade balance in $us 1,871 million.
The figure was repeated in 2019, 2020 and in 2021, but with a lower amount, since the positive trade balance was only $us 193 million. Product of an export for $us 2,305 million and an import of $us 2,112 million.
Already in 2022 the break occurs and for the first time the ifuel imports that totaled $4,231 million, exceed to sales of hydrocarbons which reached $3,049 million, generating a negative trade balance in hydrocarbons of $1,182 million.
While, according to data from YPFB During the first quarter of 2023, natural gas exports allowed the country a turnover of $us 611 million, the fuel purchases In a similar period, they required resources for $us 683 million, registering a deficit of $us 82 million, in the first three months of this administration.
Gumucio remarked that the declining production of hydrocarbons, the reduction of export markets, the growth of domestic demand for gasoline and diesel, are factors that have led to a relevant deficit between the exported value of natural gas and the imported value of fuels.
“This deficit trade balance has macroeconomic consequences: the drain of foreign currency from the Central Bank of Bolivia and the increase in the fuel subsidy that affects public finances”, the analyst pointed out.
Another aspect that Gumucio noted is that during the period 2018−2022 the volume imported from gasoline grew 31% on an annual average, while the imported volume of diesel grew 12% on an annual average.
In 2022 the value of the gasoline imports it reached $1,286 million; this is, 110% more than in 2021. This increase, according to the analyst, is explained both by the growth in the volume of imported gasoline (41%) and by the increase in the prices of this fuel (15%); both increases determine a combined effect of 62%.
“The magnitude of the increase in costs is striking in relation to the increase in demand and price, which does not have a coherent relationship,” observed Gumucio.
Who remarked that something similar occurs with the diesel. Well, its value of imports reached $us 2,092 million in 2022, with a 96% increase compared to 2021, “but the imported volume increased only 4% and diesel prices rose 27% on average.”
On the subject, Franklin Molina, Minister of Hydrocarbons, indicated that there is speculations and specified that, in fact, there is a complaint about an alleged embezzlement of resources, “which is totally erratic when one analyzes the behavior of the international oil prices”.
Molina stressed that as a result of the war in Ukraineas of March 2022, the escalation of prices made the price of a barrel of crude oil between $80 and more than $100. That, according to his criteria, caused the cost of derivatives imported by our country to increase price of about 200%.
“I believe that from a better logistics Import costs have been lowered. Last year, a liter of imported fuel was around $10, now it’s down to $6,” said the authority of the energy portfolio.
