NEWS RELEASE
EXTERNAL TRADE BULLETIN
January - 2007

April 25, 2007

The January 2007 External Trade Bulletin released by the Statistical Institute of Jamaica reveals that Jamaica’s expenditure on imports of goods during  the first month of the year amounted to US$500.0 million. This represented an increase of US$49.3 million or 10.9 per cent when compared to January 2006.
Total exports were valued at US155.6 million, growing by US$ 19.5 million or 14.3 per cent. At the end of January, the trade deficit was US$344.4 million, increasing by 9.5 per cent or US$29.8 million above the comparable period for 2006.

Import for the major commodity group “Mineral Fuels” was valued at US$123.4 million.   Other significant commodities included, “Machinery and Transport Equipment” “Food” (US$77.3 million), “Manufactured Goods” (US$62.8 million) and “Miscellaneous Manufactured Articles” (US$55.9 million).   

Domestic Exports for January 2007 totaled US$152.1 million, 14.3 per cent or US$ 19.0 million above the figure recorded for January 2006. Re-exports were recorded at US$3.5 million, with “Machinery and Transport Equipment”  US$2.0 million.

Traditional domestic export grew by US$3.6 million, 3.7 per cent to US$101.5 million. Exports non-traditional items were valued at US$50.7 million, growing by US$15.3 million or 43.3 per cent over the comparable period 2006.