The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

THE Bahamas’ trade deficit increased by 15.6 percent to $715.097m during the 2022 first quarter as cross-border flows continued to rebound from the COVID-19 related restrictions of the year before.

The National Statistical Institute, in releasing its “trade data highlights” report for the three months to end-March 2022, said physical goods commodities imported into The Bahamas during that period rose by 20 percent year-over-year to $839m. Exports, meanwhile, jumped by 25 percent to $123.689m compared to the prior year’s $80.984m.

The trade deficit measures the extent to which The Bahamas’ physical goods imports exceed its exports. The differential returned to more historical levels in early 2022, compared to the $618.422m deficit recorded for the 2021 first quarter, as trade volumes resumed some semblance of normality following the global pandemic.

The Bahamas has traditionally relied on its service exports, namely its foreign currency earnings from tourism and financial services, to finance its trade deficit and the vast quantities of commodities that it imports on an annual basis.

“As it relates to total exports, for the 2022 first quarter, data shows that the value of commodities exported (domestic and re-export) from The Bahamas totaled $124m resulting in an increase of 25 percent when compared with the same period last year,” the National Statistical Institute reported.

However, of those $124m exports, some $82.452m or 66 percent - two-thirds or the majority share - were classified as re-exports meaning that the products arrived in The Bahamas and effectively ‘passed through’ before being shipped on to other countries. It is unclear whether value is always added in The Bahamas, with just $41.237m accounting for the cumulative worth of exports that originated in this nation.

“The categories that contributed the largest proportion to the exports were ‘mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials’, which totalled $43m, ‘food and live animals’ at $30m, and ‘manufactured goods classified chiefly by materials’ at $24m, representing 79 percent of total exports,” the Institute added.

“Commodities that showed significant increases were ‘miscellaneous manufactured articles’, and ‘crude minerals, inedible except fuels’, which increased by 1,249 percent and 193 percent respectively when compared to the same quarter last year. The groups that decreased in value when compared to the same period last year were ‘chemicals’ and ‘machinery and transport equipment’, which declined by 99 percent and 17 percent, respectively.”

As for imports, the Institute said: “The data on merchandise trade for the 2022 first quarter shows that the value of commodities imported into The Bahamas totaled $839m, resulting in an increase of 20 percent when compared with the same period last year.

“The major groups of merchandise were ‘food and live animals’, which totalled $157m, ‘machinery and transport equipment’ at $149m, and ‘mineral fuels lubricants and related materials’ which totalled $137m. The combined value of these categories represented 53 percent of total imports.

“Other categories that contributed to total imports were ‘manufactured goods classified chiefly by materials’, which accounted for $117m, ‘miscellaneous manufactured articles’ valued at $107m and ‘chemicals’ at $88m. These groups together represented 37 percent of total imports,” the Institute said.

“Categories that showed significant increases were ‘animal and vegetable oils and fats’ and ‘beverages and tobacco’, which increased by 90 percent and 42 percent, respectively, when compared to the same quarter last year.”