Exports of products from Mexico registered a year-on-year growth of 3.8% in January, to 33,899.1 million dollars, showing a slowdown trend and largely affected by the automotive industry, reported Inegi.
In particular, those corresponding to the automotive industry contracted 20.5%, to 8,250.3 million dollars, the greatest impact among the main subdivisions of the indicator.
“Auto sector shipments remained very weak, with the recent trend still very volatile. Despite better signs in production, both in Mexico and in the United States, inventory and shipment management continues to be a major problem for most automotive companies”, highlighted an analysis by Banorte.
After growing at an annual rate of 19.2% last November, Mexican foreign sales rose 10.8% in December.
The trajectory of Mexico’s exports at intermonthly rates and with figures adjusted for seasonality shows a growth of 5.9% in November, a fall of 0.4% in December and a decrease of 5.3% in January, its largest drop in the last 20 months.
For its part, Mexican imports of products were 40,185.4 million dollars in January, an annual advance of 18.5%, and with this the country obtained a deficit of 6,286.3 million dollars.
In general, Banorte described that recent global events can be considered as a new supply shock, further limiting the global GDP growth expectation and probably accommodating through higher prices.
This could eventually affect Mexico as it is a very open economy. However, Banorte concluded that it is still too early to say whether geopolitical problems will be long-lasting and strong enough to affect dynamism.
In January 2022, exports of manufactured products reached 29,099 million dollars, which represented a growth of 1.6% at the annual rate.
The most important annual advances were observed in exports of steel products (65.6%), food, beverages and tobacco (20.1%), plastic and rubber products (17.3%), machinery and special equipment for various industries (10.4%).