Trade deficit widen to P1.01bn

Isaac Pinielo | Friday October 27, 2017 13:04

A trade deficit implies that imports outweighed exports in the period under review. International Merchandise Trade Statistics (IMTS) released by Statistics Botswana (SB) show that total exports were valued at P4.79 billion during the month under review, showing a decrease of 15% from the value of P5.64 billion in the previous month.

Imports value for July 2017, compared to that of the same month in 2016 shows an increase of 8.8% from P5.33 billion recorded during July 2016 to P5.79 billion recorded during July this year.

On the other hand, comparison of total exports value for July 2017 and July 2016 shows a decrease of 6.4% from P5.12 billion to P4.79 billion. The decrease is attributed to the drop in exports of diamonds and copper and nickel.

Statistician general, Anna Majelantle blamed the decline on the decrease of 19.8% in diamonds exports, from P5.19 billion in June 2017 to P4.16 billion in July. Month-on-month comparison for July and the previous month shows that trade swung from a surplus of P1.15 billion in June to a deficit of P1.01 billion in July. Total exports value for July this year and July last year shows a decrease of 6.4% from P5.12 billion to P4.79 billion.

The decrease is also attributed to the drop in exports of diamonds and copper and nickel.

Diamonds fell by 4.9% from P4.37 billion in July 2016 to P4.16 billion during the period under review.

Copper and nickel also recorded a decrease of 94.3% from P171 million in July last year to P9.8 million reported in July this year, due to the closure of the mine in October 2016.

On the other hand, total imports for July 2017 were valued at P5.78 billion showing an increase of 29.2% from the June 2017 value of P4.49 billion.

The statistician general mainly attributed the increase to the rise in imports of commodities such as fuel, machinery and electrical equipment and chemicals and rubber products to mention but a few. Fuel recorded an increase of 76.4% from P651.4 million in June 2017 to P1.15 billion currently.

Machinery and electrical equipment increased by 72.1% from P488.9 million during June 2017 to P841.2 million in July 2017.

Chemicals and rubber products also contributed significantly to the increase, having recorded an increase of 66.6% from P367.3 million in June 2017 to P611.8 million in July 2017.

Imports value for July 2017, compared to that of the same month in 2016 shows an increase of 8.8% from P5.33 billion recorded during July 2016 to P5.8 billion recorded during the reference month.