…Imports are Up, Exports are Down

Stephanie Vasquez

The External Trade Bulletin for October reflects a three and a half percent increase in goods imported into the country, while domestic exports are down by as much as sixteen percent.

Stephanie Vasquez, Statistician, S.I.B.

“In January to October of this year, Belize’s imports were valued at one point seven billion dollars, up three point one percent or fifty-one point four million dollars from January to October of last year.  Importation of transport machinery and equipment was the greatest contributor to that increase as heightened purchases of transportation and farming equipment led to a fifty million dollar growth in that category.  The manufactured goods category went up by twenty-three million dollars, largely due to tire and steel purchases, while the importation of chemical products grew by sixteen million dollars, the result of increased fertilizer and medical supply purchases.  In the period, Belize spent sixty-three million dollars less on mineral fuels and lubricants, despite a twenty-seven percent increase in the importation of diesel, regular and premium fuels combined.  The categories of machinery and transport equipment, commercial free zones and export processing zones and manufactured goods all held similar shares of Belize’s imports at twenty-two percent, twenty-one percent and twenty percent, respectively.  Mineral fuels and lubricants and food and live animals equaled in their proportions of Belize’s imports at eleven percent, while all other goods combined amounted to fifteen percent.”