The Statistical Institute of Belize is reporting that the country's imports fell by 10.2% for December 2020, when compared to the same month in 2019. Domestic exports also went down by 18.2% in December.
Declines were noted in the Commercial Free Zone, which fell by 35%, and Machinery and transport equipment, which went down by 19%. Imports of Mineral Fuels and Lubricants went down by $4.3 million dollars.
With greater imports of grocery items such as instant noodles and margarine, the food and live animals imports category increased by 2.5 million dollars.
Merchandise imports for all of 2019 amounted to 1.6 billion dollars. That's a 20.2% decrease - or $397.6 million dollars less - when compared to 2019, which almost reached the 2 billion dollar mark.
Domestic exports for December 2020 amounted to 21.3 million dollars. That's a decrease of 18.2% or 4.7 million when compared to exports from December 2019. This decrease was mainly due to the fact that there were no exports of crude petroleum last month.
Merchandise exports for all of 2019 totalled 367.8 million dollars, which is a decline of 11.1% or 46.1 million dollars when compared to the previous year.
