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Planning Board Reports Upward Trend in Exports

By on December 25, 2015

SAN JUAN – Puerto Rico Planning Board President Luis García Pelatti announced a $339.2 million, or 5.2 percent, increase in exports for October, when compared with the same month last year.

Exports of registered merchandise showed a 3.9 percent uptick for the period between July and October of fiscal year 2016, from $23.02 billion in fiscal 2015 to $23.92 billion in fiscal 2016. The change was due to an increment of $978.5 million, or 7.7 percent, in the export of chemical products to the U.S. mainland.

Another increment, of $648.1 million, or 3.7 percent, in total exports of this subsector to the U.S. mainland, U.S. Virgin Islands and foreign countries was recorded. Also, a $910.5 million rise, or 4 percent, was seen for the entire manufacturing sector for the same period in fiscal 2016. The pharmaceutical and medicine industry group made up 69.9 percent of all exports of registered merchandise for the period.

In terms of the value of registered merchandise imports, the total came to $3.62 billion for October 2015, which is $203.6 million, or 5.3 percent less, when compared with October 2014. This was due to a $140.1 million, or 35.9 percent, decrease of petroleum products and carbon imports from foreign countries.

The value of registered merchandise imports for the period between July and October of fiscal 2016 dropped 5.5 percent, which can be attributed to a $778.2 million contraction, or 47.8 percent, on basic chemical imports from foreign countries. Also, a $760 million drop, or 38.7 percent, on total imports from the U.S. mainland, USVI and foreign countries for this industrial group was registered, for a total $562.9 million, or 3.9 percent, decrease for the whole manufacturing sector.

Still, the commercial balance for October 2015 was positive, registering $3.24 billion more. This represents an increase of $542.7 million, or 20.2 percent, when compared with the same month last year. Also, for the July-October period in fiscal 2016, the accumulated balance increased 22.9 percent, or from $7.64 billion in fiscal 2015 to $9.39 billion in fiscal 2016.

By Juan Hernández

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