The country’s trade balance deficit continues to grow. At the end of the first five months of the year, the imbalance amounts to US$6,489.9 million FOB, an increase of 20.4% compared to the same period in 2021.
(Trade deficit closed the first quarter at US$4,307.3 million).
The behavior of the trade balance was announced this Tuesday by the National Administrative Department of Statistics (Dane) with the international trade report dated May.
In this way, the trade balance deficit data in the first five months of the year (US$6,489.9 million FOB), was explained by US$22,982.4 million FOB in exports and US$29,472.3 million FOB in imports. This behavior contrasts with the same period last year where foreign sales were in the order of US$15,006.8 million FOB while purchases totaled US$20,393.1 million FOB. This left a deficit of US$5,386.3 million FOB.
(Trade balance records deficit for the eighth year in a row).
Now, for the specific case of the month of May of the current year, the trade balance deficit reached US$1,732.5 million FOB, this from exports of US$4,552.7 million FOB and imports of US$6,285.2 million FOB For the fifth month of 2021, the trade imbalance reached US$1,011.8 million FOB, after registering sales abroad for US$3,096.9 million FOB and purchases for US$4,108.7 million FOB.
THIS IS HOW IMPORTS GO
According to the Dane document, Colombian imports add up to May of this year a total of US$32,138.3 million CIF, which represented an increase of 47.9% versus the same period of the previous year.
In the period under study, the category of fuels rose by 128%, being the one with the greatest variation. They are followed by the categories of manufacturing (42.2%) and agriculture, food and beverages (35.6%).
According to import declarations, merchandise from the United States participated with 25.9% of the total registered in the period January-May 2022; followed by those originating from China (24.2%), Brazil (5.8%), Mexico (5%), France (3.8%), Germany (2.9%) and India (2.2%).
BRIEFCASE
