Deficit of 2 billion dollars in the trade balance at the end of the first quarter

Mexico City. The balance of Mexico’s trade balance – the difference between exports and imports – had a deficit of two thousand 801 million dollars at the end of the first quarter of the year, which is compared to the deficit of four thousand 799 million dollars observed in the same period last year, official figures show.

The above was the result that the balance of total exports reached 143,430 million dollars and that of imports was 146,231 million.

This morning, the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi) and the Bank of Mexico (BdeM) presented the timely information related to foreign trade at the end of March of this year, where it was estimated that the balance of exports in January As of March, they had an increase of 1.7 percent compared to the same period in 2023.

In detail, oil exports had a balance of seven thousand 371 million dollars at the end of the first quarter, a decrease of 2.6 percent compared to what was reported in the same period of the previous year.

For its part, the balance of non-oil exports, which includes agriculture, manufacturing or the automotive industry, among others, totaled 136 thousand 58 million dollars, an increase of 1.9 percent compared to what was obtained from January to March. of 2023.

The information indicated that the balance of imports (146,231 million dollars) was 0.2 percent higher than what was reported in the first three months, but last year.

In this sense, oil imports had a balance of nine thousand 889 million dollars, a decrease of 36.8 percent in the reference period, but non-oil imports increased 4.7 percent, with a balance of 136 thousand 342 million dollars.

In detail, the balance of automotive exports in the first quarter reached an amount of 45,408 million dollars, which represented an advance of 5.2 percent at an annual rate; that of the manufacturing companies was for 127 thousand 99 million dollars, an increase of 1.9 percent, and that of the agricultural companies stood at six thousand 689 million dollars, with an increase of 6.3 percent and which were the ones that had the best performance.

In March, positive balance

The figures from Inegi and the central bank also indicated that in March alone, the balance of the trade balance had a positive balance or a surplus of two thousand 98 million dollars, which is compared to the favorable result of the same month of 2023 when the The figure was 1,169 million dollars.

In this sense, the balance of total exports totaled 50,752 million dollars, which implied a decrease of 5.3 percent compared to what was reported in the same month of 2023. Oil exports fell 21.4 percent and non-oil exports fell 21.4 percent. they had a reduction of 4.5 percent.

For its part, the balance of imports fell 7.1 percent compared to what was reported in the third month of 2023, with a balance of 48,654 million dollars.