External Trade Statistics

External Trade Statistics
4th Quarter & Year 2008
Highlights

1. Balance of Trade

Total exports for the fourth quarter of 2008 stood at Rs 19,932 million against imports of Rs 35,326 million resulting in a trade deficit of Rs 15,394 million.

Total exports for the year 2008 amounted to Rs 68,409 million and imports Rs 132,564 million. This resulted in a trade deficit of Rs 64,155 million, 25.0% higher than the figure of Rs 51,329 million for the previous year. It is to be noted that exclusive of the purchase of aircraft in 2007, the trade deficit for 2008 over 2007 showed an increase of 32.0%.

2. Exports

Total export proceeds for the fourth quarter of 2008 were valued at Rs 19,932 million, showing an increase of 9.2% over the previous quarter but a marginal decrease of 0.5% over the corresponding quarter of 2007.

For the year 2008, 40.5% of exports consisted of “articles of apparel and clothing accessories” (Rs 24,078 million), 13.9% of sugar (Rs 8,266 million) and 13.5% of “fish and fish preparations” (Rs 8,015 million).

The main export market for the year 2008 remained the European continent with a share of 67.9%, while on a country-wise basis, the United Kingdom was the main buyer, accounting for 34.0% of total exports. The other main markets were France (13.4%), USA (6.7%) and Madagascar (5.9%).

3. Imports

Total imports for the fourth quarter of 2008 reached Rs 35,326 million, i.e an increase of 2.8% over the previous quarter and a decrease of 3.3% over the corresponding quarter of 2007. Total imports for the fourth quarter of 2008 showed an increase of 4.5% when compared to the corresponding quarter of 2007 exclusive of aircraft worth Rs 2,730 million imported in that quarter.

In 2008, “Mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials” accounted for 21.4% of our imports, “Machinery and transport equipment” 19.8%, “Manufactured goods classified chiefly by material” 18.9% and “Food and live animals” 18.0%.

The Asian countries supplied 54.1% of the imported products for the year 2008 and another 24.3% came from European countries. The main source of imports was India (23.9%), followed by China (11.5%) and South Africa (8.1%). Compared to the year 2007 imports from India rose by 23.7% following a substantial increase in the imports of petroleum products.

March 2009

More: External Trade Statistics - 4th Quarter & Year 2008

Introduction

Table 1 - Summary of External Trade, 2007 - 2008

Table 2 - Imports and exports of the Freeport Zone, 2007-2008

Table 3 - Total exports1 of main commodities by section, 2007 - 2008

Table 4 - Domestic exports of main commodities by section, 2007 - 2008

Table 5 - Re-exports of main commodities by section, 2007 - 2008

Table 6 - Freeport re-exports of main commodities by section, 2007 - 2008

Table 7 - Total exports by country of destination, 2007 - 2008

Table 8 - Domestic exports by country of destination, 2007 - 2008

Table 9 - Re-exports by country of destination, 2007 - 2008