Posted on 28 Jul 2010
The country’s imports rose 31.4 percent to $4.753 billion in May from $3.616 billion in the same period last year, led by a double-digit surge in electronics, the National Statistics Office (NSO) reported yesterday.
The government statistics office said the latest import figure was the highest in 21 months, indicating a pickup in domestic economic activity.
The country’s purchase of electronics went up by 17.7 percent from a year ago to $1.53 billion after a 63.9 percent rise in April.
Electronics product is the country’s largest export item.
The largest import category is inputs used by the semiconductor and electronics industry, the country’s biggest export sector and a major contributor to the economy.
The central bank has revised up its import growth to 20 percent in 2010 from a previous estimate of an 18 percent rise and it raised export growth expectations to 15 percent from a forecast of 12 percent.
Merchandise exports rose 37.3 percent in May from a year ago, after a 28.2 percent rise in April.
Apart from electronic parts and fuel, the
For the first five months of the year, imports went up by 35 percent to $22.02 billion from $16.27 billion in the same period last year.
Export on the other hand stood at $19.17 billion, resulting in a trade deficit of $2.85 billion during the five-month period.
Imports of minerals, fuels, lubricants and related materials in May ranked second with 21.7 percent share and posted a positive growth of 103.8 percent to $1.029 billion over the previous year’s level of $505.16 million.
Cereals and cereal preparations was the country’s third top imports for the month with 4.9 percent share to total imports at $234.55 million.
Metalifferous ores and and metal scrap, contributing 4.5 percent to the total import bill, was the fourth top import for the month with payments placed at $212.2 million from last year’s $34.87 million.
Fifth in rank and with 4.4 percent share to the total imports, transport equipment sood at $211.06 million higher by 44.6 percent from a year ago level of $146.00 million.
Industrial machinery and equipment ranked sixth, comprising 3.9 percent of the total imports registered at $186.18 million, up by 52.9 percent from a year ago level of Q$121.74 million.
