Exports from Latin America and the Caribbean rebound

• Exports from Latin America and the Caribbean increased 31.2 per cent in the first semester of 2021, driven by the dynamism of external demand, the lifting of restrictions on mobility, and the progress of vaccination campaigns against the novel coronavirus pandemic, according to the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). 
• The rebound puts the region's external sales of goods 11 per cent above the corresponding level in 2019, after falling 9.2 per cent in 2020 due to the economic crisis caused by the pandemic. 
• The IDB Trade and Integration Monitor report indicated that concurrently, exports of services registered a 33.8 per cent drop after contracting 38.5 per cent in 2020. It noted that more traditional items, such as travel and transportation, were hit hardest. However intensive knowledge-based services proved more resilient. 
• This year's issue of the report, which analyses trade flows in Latin America and the Caribbean region through the first half of 2021, projects the continuation of an upward trend in the region's exports for the rest of the year, despite some signs of a slowdown. 
• Trade recovery was primarily driven by increases in prices (17.6 per cent) and in quantities to a lesser extent (11.5 per cent), but the volume of external shipments has not yet returned to pre-pandemic levels, the report stated.

(Source: IDB)