The country’s trade balance reached a deficit of US$4,801.9 million in the first quarter of this year. This was revealed this Friday by the National Administrative Department of Statistics (Dane) with the monthly publication of the country’s foreign trade.
(See: Agricultural exports grew 30% between January and April).
This deficit was explained by some exports of US$18,385.3 million and imports worth US$23,187.1 million. Thus, this imbalance is slightly higher, by US$427,340, than the data recorded in the same period of 2021 when the trade deficit reached US$4,374.5 million, and for this period US$11,909.9 million were recorded for exports and US$16,284.4 million.
Now, it is worth noting that the figure obtained in the first four months of the current year is higher in nearly $2 billion to that registered in the same period of 2019 when US$2,825.2 million were totaled from US$13,456.2 million for exports and US$16,282.1 million for imports.
On the other hand, in the midst of the world situation due to the war in Ukraine, Dane shared the results on Colombian imports from belligerent countries. This approach produced a deficit balance of US$155.2 million for the country in its trade balance for the first four months with Russia, while against kyiv, the imbalance reaches US$20.8 million.
The Colombian imports grew 46% in the first four months of the current year compared to the same period of the previous year, the Dane said this Friday.
In this period the external purchases of the country totaled US$25,333.7 million CIF, according to official records. It is worth noting that the CIF value is the value that includes the cost of the merchandise in its country of origin, the cost of insurance and the cost of freight to the point of destination.
When segmented by categories, in the period January-April 2022, the fuel division was the one that grew the most, with a rise of 108.1% and with a value of US$2,763.5 million CIF. It is followed by the manufacturing category with a positive variation of 42.2%, totaling US$18,939.9 million CIF.
(See: ‘65% of Holy Water sales are outside the country’).
The third largest variation is in the category of agriculture, food and beverages with a rise of 32.8%, recording US$3,600.1 million CIF.
In terms of destinations, in these first four months of the year merchandise from China prevailed (25.3%), followed by the United States (24.9%), Brazil (5.6%), Mexico (8.1% ), France (3.7%), Germany (3.1%) and India (2.1%).
(See: Government excludes 200 imported products from freight and insurance).
Imports from China grew 50.8% in this period, totaling US$6,403.9 million CIF, and the cell phone category stood out with a rise of 48.6%. Purchases from the United States, for their part, increased by 50.2%, while those from France did it in 179.3%.
BRIEFCASE
