Colombia reduced its trade deficit in 2020 by $ 653 million, bringing total imports for this year to $ 41.185 million and exports to $ 31.056 million.
(Read: Colombia’s overseas purchases decreased by 17.5% during 2020)
Thus, the trade deficit in 2020 reached 10,128 million dollars, while in the same period in 2019 it reached 10,781 million dollars. During December 2020, the record deficit was $ 880 million, while in December 2019 it was $ 553.3 million.
(Read: Exports fell in 2020 for four years)
According to import data reported by the National Administrative Statistics Service (Dane) and the National Tax and Customs Administration (Dian), overseas purchases from the country in 2020 were also reduced by 17.5%.
The largest drop in overseas purchases was in the fuel and extractive industries group, with $ 2,947 million purchased during the year, which is a 45.0% decrease compared to the same period in 2019.
“This behavior is mainly due to the decrease in imports of mineral fuels, lubricants and related products (-51.4%), which contributed a negative 43.4 percentage points to the group’s overall variance,” Dan explained.
In the manufacturing group, purchases amounted to $ 33.504 million and decreased by 16.8% compared to the same period in 2019, as a result of lower purchases of machinery and transportation equipment (-19.6%) and the mainly classified manufactured product category. According to Article (-19.4), which together contributed a negative 12.3 percentage points to the difference in the group.
The value of foreign purchases of the group of agricultural, food and beverage products made by the state amounted to $ 6,972 million, a decrease of 0.5%, compared to the same period in 2019. This result was mainly explained by a decrease in imports of non-edible raw materials, excluding fuel ( -14.9%), which contributed a negative 1.5 percentage points to the group’s variance.
By December 2020, the country’s foreign purchases amounted to $ 4,142 million, an increase of 1.6% compared to the last month of 2019.
According to Dan, this behavior is mainly due to the increase in the manufacturing group by 4.1%, which accounted for 80.2% of the total value of imports, followed by agricultural products, food and beverages at 14.6%, and fuels and extractive industries products. 4.9% and other sectors 0.3%.
More purchases from China and the United States
In December 2020, purchases made by Colombia and of China share 24.9% of the total imports; It was followed by overseas purchases from the United States with 19.6%, Brazil with 7.4%, Mexico with 6.8%, France and Germany with 3.8%, and Japan with 2.2%.
Compared to December 2019, the most significant contribution also came from purchases originating in China (9.0%), which contributed 2.1 percentage points to the overall variance for the month.
In contrast, imports from the United States (-15.4%) contributed a negative 3.6 percentage points to this disparity.
The Dane explained that “the increase in imports that originated in China in December 2020 compared to December 2019 is due to the increase in purchases of laptops (47.9%).”
For the remainder of the year, import data for goods of US origin contributed 24.2% of the total recorded for the period, followed by declarations of origin from China at 23.9%; Mexico contributed 6.7%, Brazil 5.6%, Germany 3.8%, France and India 2.2%.
From January to December 2020, the countries of origin that mainly contributed to the decline in Colombian imports were: the United States (-20.6%), Mexico (-24.6%) and Brazil (-23.3%), with a combined contribution of negative 8.4 percentage points, in While imports from Sweden rose (19.1%) 0.1 percentage point.
In 2020 compared to 2019, the decrease in purchases from the United States was explained by a decrease in imports of gasoline for engines and other light oils (-41.7%), and the increase in imports from Sweden was explained by foreign purchases of motorized chassis.
