October Trade Report

EXPORTS

The Finance Ministry reported that October export activity totaled US$26.50bln on a non-seasonally-adjusted basis (note that Pings use seasonally adjusted data). The result represented a strong 19.8% increase from October 2009. Stripping out petroleum, exports rose EVEN FASTER at a 20.4% annual rate. Mexico's most important export category, manufacturing, posted shipments of US$21.97bln, a 20.4% increase. Crude oil sales of US$3.2bln represented a 19.95% growth from a year-ago.

IMPORTS

The Finance Ministry reported that October import activity totaled US$27.32bln on a non-seasonally-adjusted basis, a 24.9% rise over the same month in 2009. The largest component, intermediate goods for manufacture processing, jumped 20.3% to US$21.97bln.

BALANCE

A trade deficit of US$818mln in the month of October brought the accumulated 2010 gap to US$2.80bln. This favorable result was obtained in part by the slick sales of crude oil as the basked of Mexican crude oil hit US$74.30 in October. So far this year, Mexico has an accumulated trade surplus of US$8.61 in petroleum products -- even after the cost of importing refined gasoline from abroad. The non-petroleum segment of the economy, however, reports a deficit of US$11.40bln YTD through the end of October.