Peruvian trade surplus reaches US$997 million in January 2021

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The trade balance registered a surplus of US$997 million in January 2021 —an amount US$704 million higher than that registered in the same month of 2020, the Central Reserve Bank has reported.

“In the first month of 2021, the exports balance amounted to US$4.26 billion, which represented an increase of 9.4% compared to January 2020 due to the increase in export prices,” the BCR said in a report.

Last January, traditional exports registered US$2.96 billion —a growth of 10.6% versus the same month of 2020, mainly due to higher prices of mining products.

On the other hand, non-traditional exports reached US$1.29 billion, a value 7.0% higher than that registered in the same month of 2020, favored by larger shipments, particularly of fishery and non-traditional agricultural products.

The imports balance reached US$3.26 billion in January 2021, which represented a value 9.4% lower than that recorded twelve months ago, as purchases of inputs, consumer goods and capital decreased.

In accumulated terms in the last twelve months, as of January 2021, the trade balance recorded a surplus of US$8.45 billion, which represented the highest value since July 2018.

In January 2021, the amount of trade grew 13.7% compared to the same month of 2020, favored by the rise in export prices, whose expansion was 15.5% due to the higher prices of gold, zinc, copper, and fishmeal, while import prices registered an increase of 1.6%.

Thus, the terms of trade maintain nine consecutive months of year-on-year growth, in a context of higher prices of raw materials in the international market. In addition, the terms of trade rose 1.8% compared to December 2020.

For its part, export prices grew 4.2%, explained by higher prices of copper, gold, zinc and oil, while import prices increased 2.3% due to higher prices of oil derivatives.