A calendar effect influenced the result to a certain extent, since Easter fell in April in 2023 and in March in 2024.
Total exports of products from Mexico registered a year-on-year growth of 11.4% in April, driven by a 27.7% increase in automotive exports, Inegi reported this Friday.
Conversely, Mexican external purchases rose 15.4% and imports of capital goods stood out among its components, with an increase of 32.5% at an annual rate.
A calendar effect influenced the result to a certain extent, since Easter fell in April in 2023 and in March in 2024.
With this, exports totaled US$51,319.5 million, imports were US$55,065.7 million and the trade balance showed a deficit of US$3,746.2 million.
Regarding external demand, the majority of the members of the governing board of the Bank of Mexico indicated at the beginning of this month that Mexican manufacturing exports have remained at high levels, although with low dynamism.
One of them indicated that external demand is expected to continue sluggish given the weakness that prevails in the United States manufacturing sector, which could prolong the low dynamism of Mexican manufacturing production.
With their respective growth, Mexico's automotive exports were estimated at US$ 16,472.5 million in April, while imports of capital goods were US$ 5,825.6 million.
Total exports showed an increase resulting net of a 13.1% growth in non-oil exports, and a 17.5% drop in oil exports.
Within non-oil exports, those directed to the United States advanced 13.8% at an annual rate and those channeled to the rest of the world, 9.5%.
However, in April 2024 and with seasonally adjusted figures, total merchandise exports from Mexico reported a monthly decrease of 2.59%. This arose from reductions of 2.64% in non-oil exports and 1.48% in oil exports.
In the fourth month of this year, the value of imports increased as a result of the combination of a 19.8% increase in non-oil imports and a 28.2% reduction in oil imports.
When considering imports by type of good, there were increases of 25.6% in imports of consumer goods and 11.5% in intermediate use goods and 32.5% in capital goods.
With seasonally adjusted data, total imports showed a monthly drop of 0.37%, the result of a decrease of 13.77% in oil imports and a growth of 0.63% in non-oil imports.
By type of good, there was a monthly decline of 0.65% in imports of intermediate use goods. Those of consumer goods registered a similar level to the previous month (variation of -0.06%), and those of capital goods advanced 1.21%.
In the reference month, exports of manufactured products amounted to US$ 45,972 million, which represented an annual increase of 12.9%.
The most significant increases were observed in exports of automotive products (27.7%), plastic and rubber products (21.1%), electrical and electronic equipment and appliances (14.1%), professional equipment and scientific (12.8%) and food, beverages and tobacco (11.4%).
In turn, the annual growth in exports of automotive products resulted from increases of 30.3% in sales channeled to the United States and 13.6% in those directed to other markets.
In April 2024, the value of oil exports was US$2,113 million. This amount was the result of US$ 1,610 million in sales of crude oil and US$ 503 million in exports of other oil products.
In that month, the average price of the Mexican crude oil export mix stood at US$ 76.88 per barrel, a figure higher by US$ 2.87 compared to the previous month and US$ 9.40 higher than that of the previous month. that of April 2023.
The volume of crude oil exported was, in the reference month, 698,000 barrels per day, lower than the level of 705,000 barrels per day in March and 1,027 million barrels per day in April 2023.
In the fourth month of the current year, the value of agricultural and fishing exports was US$2,404 million dollars, an amount that implied an annual increase of 22.6%.
Finally, extractive exports stood at US$830 million, with an annual reduction of 3.5%.
