Central America, during the third quarter of 2020, recorded total exports of U.S. $ 24,616.2 millones, which represents a slight increase of 0.1% compared to 2019. This is due to the relaxation of mobility restrictions and the reestablishment of trade flows, The impact of the pandemic on Central American exports is easing.
The data is collected in the recent report “Central America Trade Monitor”, prepared by the Center for Studies on Economic Integration (CEIE) of the Secretariat for Central American Economic Integration (SIECA), a specialized body of the Central American Integration System (SICA).
At the country level, the relative importance of El Salvador's exports stands out with 54.6%, followed by Guatemala with 37.5%, Nicaragua 23.2%, Honduras 21.3%, Costa Rica 18.8% and Panama 4.4%.
According to the report, the improvement in sales is due to a Greater dynamism in export flows towards the main extra-regional trading partners like the United States, with 1.7%, the European Union with 4.8%, Japan with 30.7%, South Korea with 135.1% and Saudi Arabia with 63%.
As for main products The main export products out of the region, according to the report, were: coffee, medical, surgical, dental and veterinary instruments, bananas and plantains. Sugar, copper minerals and concentrates, dates, figs, pineapples, avocados, guavas, mangos and mangosteens, and nutmeg, mace, amoeba and cardamom made a smaller contribution.
Imports
In the case of total goods imports, these amounted to US$44,716 million to the third quarter of 2020, showing a slowdown of 17.6 % OFF compared to the same period in 2019.
For that quarter, extra-regional imports, which account for 83.8% of the total, show a fall of -19.5% compared to last year, as do imports from within the region, thus showing an interannual variation of -6%.
The Extra-regional imports by trading partner The report shows that the main suppliers in the region for the quarter under study are the United States with 38.3%, China with 15.8% and Mexico with 10.3%. According to the report, the top ten suppliers in Central America recorded a year-on-year drop in total imports in the third quarter of 2020.
In the same period, the trade balance with third markets represented -8.1% of the regional GDP, according to the Central American Trade Monitor.
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