The value of Central American exports increased to $33,409.5 million, equivalent to a growth of 2.2% in 2020 compared to the same period of the previous year, within the framework of a recovery of regional trade that is beginning to manifest gradually.
The data is collected in the latest 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).
Intraregional exports grew by -3.3% compared to 2019, while exports to countries outside Central America grew by 4,5%.
The fall in this item is due to the decline in intraregional exports and the flow of exports to Canada (-19.5%), China (-10.9%), Mexico (-3.3) and the Dominican Republic (-3.1%), motivated by the temporary health contingency measures applied in the region.
On the other hand, exports that registered an increase compared to 2019 are those destined for markets outside Central America such as the United States (1.4%), European Union (0.8%), Japan (0.6%) and Saudi Arabia (0.6%).
The report highlights that in the case of Japan, exports to this country grew by 31.5%, and to Saudi Arabia by 70% compared to 2019, and those to South Korea showed a positive variation of 96.4%.
Regarding the main products The main export flows out of the region, according to the report, were: coffee, bananas and plantains, nutmeg, copper ores, palm oil and raw gold, and instruments for medicine, surgery, dentistry or veterinary medicine. The report highlights the annual growth in trade in mixed or unmixed medicines (6.5%), food preparations (0.5%); toilet paper and similar papers (4%) and preparations for animal feed (15.2%).
Imports
In the case of total goods imports for 2020, they fell to USD 62,151.6 million, showing a slowdown of -14.5% compared to the same period in 2019.
The data is mainly explained by the Change in the dynamics of imports from third markets, particularly from the United States (-7.2%), European Union (-1.6%), China (-1.1%), Mexico (-0.7%) and Colombia (-0.5%).
Within the main families of products Imported products include petroleum or bituminous mineral oils, with a relative importance of 9.9% and a year-on-year drop of -44,6%; cell phones and wireless network equipment with a drop of -7.1% and passenger cars and passenger transport vehicles with a contraction of -35.5%. Meanwhile, medicines by mixed or unmixed products with a positive participation of 1.9%, food preparations of 2.1%, corn 5.9% and automatic machines for data processing and their units 10%.
Finally, the report indicates that the contraction in imports recorded in 2020 allowed the region's trade deficit to be reduced.
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