LatinNews Daily - 22 June 2023

* Argentina’s national statistics institute (Indec) has released new figures which show that the country’s exports totalled US$6.20bn in May, down 24.8% year on year, while imports totalled US$7.36bn, down 6.7% compared with May 2022. This leaves a trade deficit of US$1.15bn compared with a trade surplus of US$368m in May 2022. The drop in exports can be explained by the drop in sales of primary products (-37.2%), and manufactured goods of agricultural origin (-29%) – indicative of the severe drought which Argentina’s government has described as the worst in the country’s history. The top export destinations in May were Brazil, accounting for US$996m of exports, (down 3.9% compared to last year), and China (US$705m, up 20.1% year-on-year). These were also the top sources of imports, with Brazil accounting for US$1.92bn of imports (up 27.8% on 2022) and China providing US$1.24bn of imports, down 12.9%. In the first five months of 2023, Argentina’s exports totalled US$28.00bn, down 22.1% on the same period in 2022, while imports totalled US$30.69bn, down 6.3%, leaving a deficit of US$2.69bn. This compares with a trade surplus of US$3.20bn registered in the first five months of 2022.