Mexico Registers $442M February Trade Surplus Anthony Harrup - Dow Jones
go to original March 26, 2012

MEXICO CITY - Mexico registered a trade surplus in February, its second in three months, as exports rose sharply from a year earlier and from the previous month, backed by strong manufacturing exports and high crude oil prices.

The National Statistics Institute, or Inegi, said the country chalked up a $442 million trade surplus last month, with exports up 16.3% to $29.96 billion and imports up 15.9% to $29.52 billion. The surplus was slightly smaller than the $527 million median estimate of five economists polled by Dow Jones Newswires.

Petroleum exports rose 26.5% from a year earlier to $4.58 billion as state oil monopoly Petroleos Mexicanos exported 1.229 million barrels a day of crude oil at an average price of $110.51. Export volume was up from 1.191 million barrels a day in January, and practically unchanged from a year ago, although the average price was higher.

Manufacturing exports expanded at a solid pace, rising 14.7% from February 2011 to $24 billion, led by the auto industry. Mining and agricultural exports were also higher.

Higher oil prices also pushed up the cost of gasoline imports, contributing to a 20.9% rise in imports of consumer goods, although the volume of gasoline imports fell to 314,000 barrels a day from 381,000 in January and 325,000 in February 2011, according to Pemex data.

Inegi said imports of producer goods rose 14.6% to $22.31 billion, and imports of equipment and machinery rose 25.4% to $2.84 billion.

The trade numbers confirm a strong start to the year for the Mexican economy, which expanded 4.4% in January from a year earlier. In seasonally adjusted terms, February exports rose 6.1% from January, and imports were up 4.1%

Anthony Harrup, anthony.harrup@dowjones.com

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