Last year, the trade balance registered a deficit of $6.122 million, resulting in a 19% increase over the $5.149 million reported in 2017.
From the Central Bank of Honduras report:
At the end of 2018, FOB exportations of general merchandise accumulated a value of US$4,373.2 million, lower by 3.6% (US$162.6 million) regarding the shown in 2017, mainly because of the decrease in sales of coffee, palm oil, sugar, gold and shrimp; behavior fundamentally associated to the decrease experienced in international prices.
In the third quarter of 2018, Central American exports totaled $23,702 million, reporting an increase of less than 1% compared to the same period in 2017, because of the lower dynamism of sales from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua.
According to the Central American Trade Monitor for the Third Quarter 2018, prepared by the Secretariat of Central American Economic Integration (SIECA), imports of goods in the region totaled $54,665 million from July to September last year, recording a 6.5% increase over the same period in 2017.
Between January and November 2018, the trade balance recorded a deficit of $5.540 million, 18% more than the $4.683 million recorded in the same period of 2017.
The Central Bank of Honduras reported that "... At the end of November 2018, the trade balance recorded a deficit of US$5,540.4 million, higher by US$857.5 million than that recorded in the same period of the previous year.
Between January and October of this year, sales abroad totaled $3.785 million, registering a decrease of almost 3% compared to the total accumulated in the same period of 2017.
The Central Bank of Honduras reported that in the first ten months of the year the value of exports totaled US$3,784.6 million, showing a 2.8% decrease (US$107.9 million) compared to October 2017, evolution basically related to the reduction in sales of coffee, palm oil, used gold accessories and shrimp, partly reduced by greater external shipments of paper and cardboard, zinc and plastic and their manufactures.
Between January and September of this year, sales abroad totaled $3,499 million, registering a decrease of almost 3% compared to the cumulative figure for the same period in 2017.
The Central Bank of Honduras reported that by the third quarter of 2018, FOB exports of general merchandise totaled US$3,499.2 million, lower by 2.8% (US$101.6 million) compared to September 2017, mostly because of a decrease in sales of coffee, palm oil, used gold accessories and shrimp; a result that was partially balanced by the increase in external shipments of paper and cardboard, zinc and plastic and their manufactures.
Petroleum products, iron and steel, food and pharmaceutical products, headed last year's purchases from companies in the South American nation from Central American countries.
Figures from the Central American-Ecuador Trade Information System complied by the Business Intelligence Unit at CentralAmericaData: [GRAPHIC caption = "Click to interact with the graph"]
Last year, mineral fuels, plastic articles and food led the commercial exchange between Peruvian and Central American companies.
Figures from the Central American-Peru Trade Information System complied by the Business Intelligence Unit at CentralAmericaData: [GRAPHIC caption = "Click to interact with the graph"]
Plastic articles, pharmaceutical products and food preparations last year led the commercial exchange between companies from the Caribbean nation and Central American countries.
Figures from the information system of Commerce between Central America and the Dominican Republic, compiled by the Trade Intelligence Area of CentralAmericaData: [GRAFICA caption="Click to interact with graphic"]
Trade in goods and services between the countries of the region amounted to $4.792 billion during the second quarter of the year, 3% more than in the same period of 2017.
Central America's total exports reached USD 16,299.7 million in the second quarter of 2018 and increased by 1.7% over the same period last year. 29.4% of exports went to the Central American market, while the remaining 70.6% went to third markets.
Between January and July of this year, sales abroad reached $2.846 million, recording a decrease of almost 3% with respect to the cumulative figure for the same period in 2017.
Between January and June of this year, sales abroad totaled $2.486 billion, registering a decrease of 2.7% with respect to what was accumulated in the same period in 2017.
From a report by the Central Bank of Honduras:
Regarding regional destinations, North America remains in first position, with the United States of America (USA) being the main commercial partner of Honduras with 35.2% of total exports, followed by the markets of Europe which demanded 32.7% of the total and Central America with a share of 18.9% of the total.
Due to the crisis affecting Nicaragua and paralysis of construction in Panama between April and May, the IMF has reduced the expectation of economic growth for the Central American region from 4% to 3.3%.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) cut growth forecasts for the Central American economy, due to the uncertainty caused by the situation in Nicaragua and its effect on the region's economic activity, and the impact of the construction strike in Panama, which has halted works on 260 projects nationwide for the last 30 days.
Between January and May of this year, sales abroad totaled $2.091 billion, registering a decrease of almost 2% with respect to the amount accumulated in the same period in 2017.
A report of the Central Bank of Honduras states that "... Agroindustrial activities generated foreign currency of US $1.137 billion, which represents a decrease of US $142.7 million in relation to the amount obtained in the interval from January to May in the previous year; essentially because of a reduction of US $133.3 million in coffee exports, a fact linked to the 14.6% drop in the international price of coffee (existence of an oversupply of coffee in the world market and the speculation of abetter harvest by Brazil)."
In the first four months of the year, the country counted $1.686 billion earned from sales abroad, registering an increase of just 1.3% compared to the same period in 2017.
The Central Bank of Honduras reported that the increase recorded is largely due to an "... increase in external sales of manufactured goods such as paper and cardboard, iron and its manufactures, plastic products and soaps, as well as mining products (zinc, lead and gold)."
Explained by the results of the agro-industrial sector, between January and March of this year the country registered $1.272 billion in sales abroad, 2% more than in the first quarter of 2017.
From a report by the Central Bank of Honduras:
General merchandise transactions with foreign countries registered a deficit of US $1.1261 billion in the first quarter of 2018, resulting from imports that totaled US $2.398 billion, US $142.5 million (6.3%) more than in March 2017; while exports totaled US $1.2719 billion, increasing US $25.1 million (2.0%) when compared with those of the same period in the previous year.