Mexican merchandise exports registered a growth of 18.5% year-on-year in 2021, to 494,224.5 million dollars, reported on Thursday, Jan, 27th, by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi).
Conversely, imports from Mexico were 505,715.6 million dollars, an increase of 32.1%, at an annual rate.
Consequently, the country obtained a deficit of 11,491.1 million dollars in its product trade balance.
Also with this, Mexico practically achieved a total trade (imports plus exports) of 1 billion dollars for the first time (999,940.1 million)
Previously, exports showed a strong downward trend, growing 10% in 2018, slowing to 2% in 2019, and plummeting to -9% in 2020, impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic.
In particular, Mexican exports benefited last year from the fiscal stimuli granted in the United States -its main destination-, from the recent entry into force of the Treaty between Mexico, the United States, and Canada (T-MEC) and from the trade war between the United States and China.
On the contrary, its main stumbling block was the global shortage of semiconductor chips, which especially delayed automotive production, whose foreign sales were the only major subdivision with a year-on-year drop in December, of -4.6%, to 12.5 billion US dollars.
All in all, automotive exports grew 13.8% in 2021, to 139.8 billion US dollars.
In sum, non-oil exports were estimated at 465,298.9 million dollars in 2021, an advance of 16.5%; while the oil companies totaled 28,925.6 million, achieving a growth of 65.4 percent.
Recently, Mexico’s economic activity has shown an upward trend in agriculture, industry, and services. The latter sector has some heterogeneity, with recovery lagging in high-touch sectors such as leisure and hospitality, while activity in some other sectors is above pre-pandemic levels.
Within non-oil exports, agricultural exports grew 7.6% in 2021 (19.6 billion dollars), extractive exports rose 29% (9,554.8 million) and manufacturing increased 16.7% (436 billion USD).
In December 2021 and with series adjusted for seasonality, total merchandise exports reported a monthly decline of 0.10%, which was derived from the combination of a contraction of 8.05% in oil exports and a growth of 0.43% in exports. not oil.
Going forward, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) forecasts that the Mexican economy will expand 3.3% in 2022 and 2.5% in 2023, after growing 5.9% in 2021. Its projection includes that Mexican exports will continue to benefit from the strong recovery of the United States.
Regarding the composition of imports in 2021, those of consumer goods grew 34.9% (62 billion US dollars), those of intermediate goods climbed 32.7% (403,163.7 million) and those of capital goods were higher by 21.8% (40.5 billion USD).
With seasonally adjusted series, total imports showed a monthly advance of 4.86% in December, as a result of increases of 4.72% in non-oil imports and 5.99% in oil imports.
Source: El Economista
