KINGSTON, Jamaica – The Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN) says Jamaica earned US$527.3 million in export earnings for the first quarter of this year.
Photo credit: Luciavonu / Shutterstock.comIt said the figure is 54.7 percent above the US$340.9 million generated for the corresponding period in 2022 and that it was also US$201.9 million more than the US$325.4 million earned for January and February 2023.
STATIN said that increased outflows for the review period were primarily driven by a 63.9 percent rise in ‘Mineral Fuels’ exports.
It said re-exports were valued at US$91.7 million, while domestic exports, which accounted for 73.1 percent of total outflows, increased by 32.6 percent to US$385.5 million.
STATIN said that domestic exports grew by 32.6 percent to US$385.5 million between January and March, compared to US$290.7 million over the corresponding period last year.
The United States, United Kingdom, Puerto Rico, Latvia, and Russian Federation were the top five destinations for Jamaican exports and STATIN said the value of outflows to these countries climbed by 70 percent to US$399.2 million.
Meanwhile, Jamaica’s expenditure on imports between January and March totaled just over US$1.9 billion. This represented a 6.2 percent increase on the spend for the corresponding period in 2022.
The sum was also US$708.7 million more than the US$1.19 billion spent for January and February this year.
STATIN reported that the increase for the review period was mainly due to higher imports of ‘Raw Materials/Intermediate Goods’, ‘Consumer Goods’, and Capital Goods’.
Inflows for these categories rose by 6.2 percent, 10.9 percent and 14.9 percent, respectively.
The five countries from which Jamaica largely imported were the US, People’s Republic of China, Brazil, Japan, and Trinidad and Tobago.
Jamaica’s spend on inflows from these countries totaled just over US$1.22 billion, representing a 5.8 percent increase, relative to 2022. This was mainly due to higher imports of fuel from the United States.
