Economy & Business - January 2023

PARAGUAY | Country records first trade deficit in nearly three decades. Paraguay’s central bank (BCP) on 12 January released its foreign trade report for December 2022, which shows that the country recorded a trade deficit of US$1.29bn last year. This is the first time that Paraguay has posted a negative balance of trade in 28 years. According to the BCP, exports totalled US$13.88bn in 2022, 1.5% less than the US$14.09bn recorded in 2021, while imports totalled US$15.19bn, an increase of 16.1% compared with the previous year. The BCP stated that the drop in exports was mainly due to fewer shipments of soybeans, oils, and flours – soybean exports in 2022 totalled US$1.23bn, down 58.8% on the previous year. This reflects the effects of a drought which severely affected the output of Paraguay’s soybean harvest. Meanwhile, fuel and machine and motor parts pushed up the overall value of imports last year.    

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