El Trade fell 15,3% in August compared to the same period of the previous year and reached a value of US$ 8.440 million, as reported this Thursday (24.09.2020/XNUMX/XNUMX) by the National Institute of Statistics and Census (Indec).
Last month the Exports were US$ 4.938 million, while the Imports reached US$ 3.502 billion. Given these figures, the trade balance recorded a trade surplus of US$1.436 billion, US$268 million higher than in the same month of 2019.
"The trade surplus occurred in the context of a fall in both exports and imports. This behavior, of positive variation in the trade surplus as a result of greater falls in imports compared to the fall in exports, was recorded from January 2020 to date.", explained the Indec.
Exports
Exports in August decreased by 11,3% (– US$ 630 million) compared to the same month in 2019, due to a 3,5% drop in prices and 8,1% in quantities. In seasonally adjusted terms, exports increased by 4,8% compared to July 2020, while the cycle trend showed a negative variation of 0,5%.
Exports of All sectors fell year-on-year except for primary products, which showed an increase of 10,2% by an increase of 8,8% in quantities and 1,3% in prices. This was due to sales of cereals and, to a lesser extent, oilseeds and fruits. Corn grain was the main export product of this period.
The most significant drop was -30,6% and corresponded to fuels and energy, due to lower exports of fuels and petroleum gas, followed by manufactures of industrial origin (-26,0%) and manufactures of agricultural origin (-12,3%).
As for the fate of the exports, Brazil positioned itself as Argentina's number one trading partnerto, with China behind: In August, US$ 646 million were exported to the neighboring country (a drop of -24,2% compared to the same period of the previous year), while US$ 604 million were exported to the Asian Giant (which meant a -10,4% drop (in relation to August 2019).
The ranking is completed by the United States (US$ 335 million), Vietnam (US$ 306 million), Chile (US$ 275 million), India (US$ 185 million), Peru (US$ 162 million), the Netherlands (US$ 145 million), the Republic of Korea (US$ 144 million) and Spain (US$ 120 million), among others.
Imports
Regarding the Imports fell by 20,4% in August (-US$ 898 million) compared to the same month of the previous year, due to a 18,3% decrease in quantities and a 2,7% decrease in prices. In seasonally adjusted terms, imports increased by 7,0% compared to July 2020, while the cycle trend showed a positive variation of 0,3%.
All economic uses recorded negative variations. Imports of fuels and lubricants plummeted -48,1%, followed by parts and accessories for capital goods (-37,8%), passenger motor vehicles (-24,5%), capital goods (-23,0%), consumer goods (-10,0%) and intermediate goods (-5,1%). The rest of imports, which represent 1,1% of the total, rose 70,8%.
The main countries of origin of imports were Brazil (US$ 777 million and a negative variation of -16,0% year-on-year), China (US$ 738 million and -16,4%) and the United States (US$ 353 million and -31,5%).
The list was completed by Paraguay (US$ 186 million), Germany (US$ 133 million), Mexico (US$ 93 million), Bolivia (US$ 92 million), Vietnam (US$ 77 million), Italy (US$ 72 million), France (US$ 63 million), among others.
Countries with trade surplus
Lastly, The top five countries with which trade surpluses were achieved were Vietnam ($229 million), Chile ($219 million), Peru ($153 million), India (US$ 136 million) and Netherlands (US $ 131 million).
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