PRESS RELEASE
EXTERNAL TRADE BULLETIN
January to February 2006

June 15, 2006

The January to February 2006 External Trade Bulletin released by the Statistical Institute of Jamaica reveals that imports for the first two months of 2006 were valued at US$817.8 million. This represents an increase of 20.3 percent when compared to the same period in 2005.Total exports earned US$293.3 million, growing by 28.0 percent or US$64.1 million. The trade deficit at the end of the period stood at US$524.5 million, a 16.4 percent increase above the period in 2005.

The Major Commodity groups imported during February 2006 were “Minerals Fuels” which was valued at  (US$246.2 million), Machinery and Transport Equipment’, (US$178.1 million), “Food” (US$111.5 million) “Chemicals” (US$ 88.7 million) and “Manufactured Goods” (US$87.2 million),
Domestic Exports earned US$286.5 million or 27.1 percent above the comparable period in 2005. Re-exports for the period amounted to US$ 6.8 million increasing by US$ 3.0 million.
Earnings from traditional domestic exports were valued at US$209.5 million or increasing by 14.3 percent. Non-traditional domestic exports grew by US$34.8 million to US$77.0 million.