Mexico registered year-on-year drops in both exports (-2.9%) and imports (-3.3%) of products in April, Inegi reported Thursday.
With this, its exports are estimated at 46,224.2 million dollars and its imports at 47,732.7 million, showing a deficit of 1,508.5 million. While imports did not have an annual decline since March 2021, the trend in exports was the second of the year, after falling 3 percent in February.
A deterioration in trade is already expected, especially exports, given that the economic growth of the United States in the fourth quarter was lower than the market’s opinion and the probability of a recession in that region has increased,” Banco Base said in a report.
In general, Intercam Banco considered that although the figures for April indicate the weakness of Mexican foreign trade in the month, the accumulated weight still shows moderate growth. At annual rates, exports rose 4.2% and imports increased 3.9% in the first four months of the year.
In the supply side, which decreased oil exports (-32.8%), to 2,617.4 million dollars and car sales (-2.7%), to 12,899.3 million, stood out.
In April, the average price of Mexican mixed crude oil for export stood at 69.32 dollars per barrel, a higher figure of 4.97 dollars compared to the previous month, although it was 32.73 dollars lower than in April 2022.
The drop in auto exports resulted from a 3.6% drop in those in the United States and a 2.7% rise in those shipped in the rest of the world.
On the demand side, the decrease in imports was only in oil companies (-27.5%), to 4,455.2 million dollars, with a marginal increase (+0.1%) in non-oil purchases, to 43,277.5 million. In April 2023, exports of manufactured goods were at 40,708 million dollars, which represented an annual decline of 0.4 percent.
The largest decreases were observed in the sales of iron products (20.3%), in mining and metallurgy products (19%).
