The main cut continues to be experienced in the category of fuels and products from the extractive industries, which registered a contraction of 3.9%, registering US$ 2,130.4 million.
The National Administrative Department of Statistics of Colombia (DANE) reported that, in May, Colombian exports fell 1.1%, going from US$ 4,497.9 million (FOB) in the same month last year, to US $4,446.7 million.
The main cut continues to be experienced in the category of fuels and products from the extractive industries, which registered a drop of 3.9%, registering US$ 2,130.4 million. Manufacturing follows, with a contraction of 1.3%, for US$ 937.3 million.
Agricultural products, food and beverages showed a growth of 4.8% compared to May of last year, as it achieved sales of US$ 1,046 million, as well as the other category, which increased 0.1 percentage points due to its sales of US $333 million.
What has been seen in recent months is a slowdown in the losses that Colombian exports have been paying in recent years.
Specifically for the month of May, the drop was 1.7 percentage points lower than that recorded for the same month last year. However, Colombia still does not rebound if it is compared to previous figures such as May 2022, when external sales were US$ 4,552 million and increases of 47% were recorded.
A broader look also allows us to see that in the last 18 months exports have fallen 16 times. Only January and April of this year have saved the country (with increases of 1.3% and 17.9%, respectively) from falling into such an unfortunate streak.
Even so, the largest falls were evident last year (especially in April -31.5%, June -27.5% and July -30.8%), so the behavior for this is somewhat positive and they would be occurring signs of a recovery path (of the five months of the current year, three have consolidated better figures compared to the behavior of the same time window in 2023).
As mentioned previously, the item that continues to contribute the greatest losses continues to be fuels and products from the extractive industries, and on this the commitment that Ecopetrol has taken in the matter is evident.
However, it should be noted that so far this year, oil and its derivatives have achieved a 4.5% rebound in exports; while hard coal, coke and briquettes are those that have consolidated the most decline, of -28.6%.
Also remember that the National Government's bets are on the so-called reindustrialization, through which the Colombian economy must stop depending on the commercialization of raw materials and rather bet on giving added value to them, as well as investing in other sectors with a high development potential, such as tourism and clean energy.
“In the period January - May 2024, Colombian exports were US$ 20,154.2 million FOB and registered a decrease of 2.5%, compared to the same period in 2023. In the period January - May 2024, exports from the group of Fuels and products from the extractive industries were US$ 9,867.1 million FOB and decreased 8.7% compared to the same period in 2023.
This behavior was mainly due to the fall in external sales of coal, coke and briquettes (-28.6%), which contributed 11.4 negative percentage points to the variation of the group,” DANE concluded in its bulletin.
