For the purposes of recovering economic activity at an international level, the total exports from Central America had an increase of 27,5%, reaching a value of USD 20,958.8 million, compared to the same period in 2020.
The data is collected from 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).
The report detailed that the extra-regional exports registered a rise of 27,1%, due to the increase in the flow of exports to China, which increased by 180%, to South Korea with 65.7%, and to Japan with 40,1%. Meanwhile, sales to the United States reached 22.5%; to the European Union 22.9%, and to destination markets such as Canada 8.3%, compared to those registered in 2020.
All major economic categories recorded positive variations in the second quarter of 2021 compared to the same period of the previous year. Thus, the export of food and beverages to third parties in the market showed a growth of 6.6%; industrial supplies showed a variation of 68.6%, as well as consumer goods 46.6%; capital goods 48.4%; transportation equipment and its parts and accessories 29.3%; and fuels and lubricants with 47.6%.
Regarding sales by product, according to the study, the most important exports are coffee and coffee substitutes (13.5%); instruments for surgery, medicine, dentistry or veterinary medicine (12.9%); copper minerals and their concentrates (8.7%); bananas (8%); and sugar (8.0%).
Regional economic activity has regained momentum. SIECA stressed that “The good dynamism shown corresponds to the recovery of internal demand and global trade in goods.” In this regard, it said that Intraregional exports accounted for 28.5%, while exports to countries outside Central America grew by 27%.
Imports
In the case of imports of total goods, these amounted to USD 40,833 million in the second quarter of 2021, showing an acceleration of 36.9% compared to the same period in 2020.
For this second quarter of 2021, the extra-regional imports represented 38.7%, while imports from within the region represented 27.3%.
Extra-regional imports by trading partner show for the period under study that the main suppliers in the region are USA. with 39%, China with 16,2%, European Union with 10,5% and Mexico with 9,4%; while Colombia (1.9%) and Japan (1.9%).
According to SIECA data, the import of medicines stands out, mixed or unmixed products, which registered growth (6.5%); food preparations (14.2%); articles for plastic packaging (19.7%) and bakery products (18.9%).SIECA Report)
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