

The Statistical Institute of Jamaica has reported that export revenues contracted by 4.1 per cent in the first four months of 2024.
For the January – April period, the country collected US$647.2 million in export revenue compared with US$674.6 million in the corresponding period in 2023. The falloff in revenues was attributed to a 52.0 per cent decline in the re-export of “Mineral Fuels”.
While domestic exports rose from US$510 million during January to April 2023 to at US$557.3 million in the period under review, the value of total re-exports fell to US$89.9 million, down from US$164.6 during the comparable period for 2023.
Jamaica’s top five export destinations were the USA, Iceland, the Russian Federation, Puerto Rico and Canada. Export revenue from countries rose by 2.6 per cent to US$452.6 million, primarily due to higher alumina exports to Iceland.

In the meantime, total spending on imports during the January to April 2024 was valued at US$2,451.7 million, showing an increase of 0.5 per cent over the same period in 2023.
“This growth was primarily driven by higher imports of “Fuels and Lubricants” (4.2%) and “Consumer Goods” (5.5%),” STATIN reported
For the period, Jamaica’s five main import partners were the USA, the People’s Republic of China, Brazil, Japan and Trinidad and Tobago. Spending on imports of goods from these countries fell by 6.3 per cent to US$1,447.5 million.
The decline was due largely to lower imports of “Mineral Fuels” from the USA.
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