Colombia’s imports rebounded in May, approaching US$7 billion

Colombia’s imports rebounded in May and were almost US$2 billion above pre-pandemic benchmarks (May 2019). In the fifth month of 2022, the country’s external purchases totaled US$6.8 billion, while in the same month of 2019, these were US$4.8 billion.

According to Dane data, what was reported in May 2022 represented an increase of 55.6% annually, as in May 2021, imports totaled US$4.4 billion. “This behavior was mainly due to the 41.5% increase in manufacturing.”

“In May 2022, manufacturing imports participated with 70.3% of the total CIF value of imports, followed by fuels and products of extractive industries with 15%, agricultural, food and beverages with 14.1%, and other sectors with 0.5%”, highlighted the statistical entity.

Based on the above, the DANE data indicate that in May, imports of manufactured goods totaled US$4.8 billion, a growth of 41.5% annually, while the fuel group made external purchases of US$1 billion, an increase of 207.3% annually, while the agricultural sector made imports for US$958 million, 47.4% more than a year ago.

IMPORTS BETWEEN JANUARY AND MAY 2022

On the other hand, this year, Colombian imports amounted to US$32.1 billion and registered an increase of 47.9%, compared to the same period in 2021.

In the January-May 2022 period, imports of the manufacturing group were US$23.7 billion and increased 42.2%, compared to the same period of 2021, as a result of higher purchases of machinery and transport equipment (45.1%) and chemicals and related products (40.0%), which together contributed 31.3 percentage points to the group’s variation.

Regarding external purchases of the group of agricultural products, food, and beverages, DANE said that up to May, these totaled US$4.6 billion and increased 35.6%, compared to the same period of 2021. This result was mainly explained by higher imports of food products and live animals (35%), which contributed 27.2 percentage points to the variation of the group.

On the other hand, external purchases in the group of fuels and products of extractive industries in the January-May 2022 period were US$3.8 billion and presented an increase of 128% compared to the same period of 2021.

This behavior was mainly due to the increase in imports of mineral fuels, lubricants, and related products (157.6%), which contributed 117.8 percentage points to the total variation of the group.

With information from Bloomberg

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