Visible trade gap grows

There was a mixed bag of news for the government yesterday when the National Statistics Office announced that in the 11-month period to November last year, the visible trade gap widened by Lm68 million to Lm331.3 million after an increase in imports and a drop in exports.

In the period under review, the value of total exports went down by 3.1 per cent to Lm841.4 million from Lm867.9 million. However, the figure for 2002 includes Lm41.4 million accruing from the sale of aircraft. This is clearly shown by a drop of Lm52.3 million or 33.8 per cent in re-exports.

The good news is that domestic exports were up by 3.6 per cent from Lm713.2 million to Lm739.0 million in value.

Total imports for the period January - November 2003 increased by 3.7 per cent to Lm1,172.7 million from Lm1,131.2 million in value for the same period of 2002.

The value of imports of industrial supplies was up by Lm20.2 million to Lm601.7 million. The importation of capital goods went up to Lm190.6 million in value, representing an increase of Lm6.6 million or 3.6 per cent. Consumer goods imports were also up by Lm14.2 million, from Lm270.1 million to Lm284.3 million in value.

The value of fuel imports increased marginally by Lm0.5 million.

In November last year, total imports reached Lm102.1 million in value. This is a drop of Lm8.7 million when compared to November of the previous year.

In the month under review, the value of total exports shows a rise of Lm5.5 million to Lm79.7 million from Lm74.2 million of the previous year. Domestic exports were up by Lm6.4 million in value while the value of re-exports declined by Lm0.9 million.