Jamaica’s International Merchandise Trade May 2022  

 

• For the period January to May 2022, Jamaica’s total spending on imports was valued at US$3,050.0Mn which represents a 34.1% increase relative to last year, while earnings from exports amounted to US$641.4Mn which represents a 2.8% decline relative to the prior period.
• The increase in imports was primarily attributed to higher imports of “Fuels and Lubricants”, “Raw Materials/Intermediate Goods” and “Consumer Goods”, which rose by 56.0%, 28.1% and 35.9% respectively.
• Meanwhile, the fall in the value of exports was due primarily to a 59.0% decline in the value of exports of “Crude Materials (excl. Fuels)”. Domestic exports from January to May 2022 fell by 6.1% to US$531.7 million, due to a 60.7% decline in exports from the Mining and Quarrying industry as this industry has been negatively affected by Jamalco’s plant closure after its fire in August 2021. Earnings from domestic exports accounted for 82.9% of total exports.
• The value of imports for the period January to May 2022 from Jamaica’s five main trading partners, the United States of America (USA), Brazil, China, Trinidad and Tobago and Japan, was US$1,977.4 million, representing 64.8% of the total imports.
• The top five destinations for Jamaica’s exports were the USA, Puerto Rico, Canada, the United Kingdom and the Russian Federation. The value of exports to these countries increased by 25.2% to US$517.0 million, due mainly to higher exports of fuels to the USA.

(Source: STATIN)