Colombia’s foreign purchases decreased 5% compared to the same month in 2012, according to the country’s official statistics department.
In the report released Wednesday by National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE), imports are shown to have dropped from $5.2 billion for August 2012 to $5 billion for August 2013.
The study claims that the decline is a largely a result of the fall in manufacturing, purchases of road vehicles, iron and steel. Manufacturing in Colombia has fallen by 5.8%, road vehicle purchases by 13.6%, and iron and steel by 28.9%.
A 19.3% decline in foreign purchases of cereals and cereal preparations also goes a long way in explaining the decline as it led in part to a 9.9% fall in the import of agricultural products, food and beverages.
The report did show some increases with fuels and mining products showing a growth of 10.6% and a 17.2% increase for purchases of diesel. It also researched into trade with particular countries. It recorded foreign purchases from China and Mexico at 16.8% and 9.2% respectively. China and Mexico are also the countries that Colombia has the highest deficits with in its balance of trade, figures for this year up to August with the two countries stand at $3.1 billion and $2.9 billion respectively.
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However, overall for the year up until August 2013 Colombia is running a trade surplus of $1.8 billion. The highest surpluses were filed with the United States ($2,849.5 million), Panama ($2.1 billion) and the Netherlands ($1.3 billion).
Sources
- Disminuyen importaciones 5,0% en agosto (DANE press release)
- Menos pedidos al exterior (Dinero.com)
- Importaciones disminuyeron 5 por ciento en agosto, según el Dane (El Colombiano)