In the first seven months of the year, Argentine foreign trade was at record levels, with exports worth US$ 52.2 billion and imports, US$ 49.6 billion.
Highlights:
- Between January and July 2022, exports reached US$ 52.2 billion, which represents a record level for that period, exceeding by almost US$ 5.5 billion the previous maximum value of January-July 2011. They accumulate a y-o-y increase of 22.4%, which is explained by a rise in prices (20.9%) and, to a lesser extent, in quantities (1.1%).
- Imports totalled US$ 49.6 billion in January-July (they grew 44.6%), which makes up the highest historical value for the first seven months of a year. They were driven by higher prices –at all-time highs– and quantities of Fuels and lubricants, and by increases in the prices of Intermediate goods and quantities of Capital goods and their parts, and Passenger motor vehicles.
- The trade balance achieved a surplus at US$ 2.5 billion, US$ 5.8 billion less than the positive result of January-July 2021, resulting from the greater pace of growth of imports than exports.
- The three main partners, Brazil, China and the United States, absorbed as a whole 27.5% of the exports and supplied 53.3% of the imports in January-July 2022.
- The largest surpluses were in trade with Chile (US$ 2.5 billion), India (US$ 1.9 billion), the Netherlands (US$ 1.8 billion), Peru (US$ 1.2 billion) Indonesia (US$ 1.2 billion) and Vietnam (US$ 1.1 billion).
- The highest deficits were recorded with China (US$ 6.6 billion), United States (US$ 3.0 billion), Brazil (US$ 2.5 billion), Germany (US$ 1.1. billion) and Bolivia (US$ 1.0 billion).
- Highlights include increases in wheat exports (US$ 1.9 billion), maize (US$ 1.2 billion), crude oil (US$ 1.2 billion) and frozen bovine boneless meat (US$ 0.5 billion). The largest drop corresponds to soybeans (−US$ 0.8 billion).
- It is worth highlighting the increases in the prices of all the products of the soybean complex: oil, 42.7%; biodiesel, 25.7%; beans, 23.7%; and flour, 8.1%. In relation to the quantities, those of biodiesel (14.7%) increased, while those of beans (−64.3%), oil (−28.2%) and flours and pellets (−8.2%) decreased.
- As for the automotive complex, exports grew by US$ 0.8 billion, mainly due to higher external sales of vehicles for passenger transport (+70.9%) and, to a lesser extent, for freight transport (+6.1%). The deficit in the sector (US$ 1.4 billion) is explained almost exclusively by the increase in imports of auto parts (+27.6%, equivalent to US$ 0.9 billion).
- Regarding imports, there stand out the highest purchases of diesel oil (US$ 2.4 billion), liquefied natural gas (US$ 1.6 billion), gasoline, excluding that for aviation (US$ 0.5 billion) and fuel oil (US$ 0.4 billion), while those of soybeans (−US$ 0.2 billion) decreased.
