The preliminary estimates are based on information gleaned from customs duty forms from airports and shipping companies. A deficit is reflected when the value of imports outstrip the worth of exports.<\/p>\n
The deficit for 2005 was $2.11 billion, the highest over a five-year period, according to the department\uff92s figures. The 2002 deficit in merchandise trade, $1.4 billion, was the lowest deficit recorded for the period of 2001 to 2005, while the 2003 deficit of $1.5 billion was the second lowest for the same period. <\/p>\n
The newly released statistics also showed that the value of imports totalled $2.5 billion for 2005, which is a 30% increase over the 2004 total of $1.9 billion.<\/p>\n
According to the preliminary figures for last year, The Bahamas exported only $293 million worth of goods primarily comprised of chemicals like polystyrene and other plastic materials and food and live animals, inclusive of crawfish, salt and rum. <\/p>\n
“Most of these exports [went to the] U.S with the exception [of] crawfish where [a significant amount] went to France,” explained Nerissa Gibson, assistant director of the Department of Statistics. <\/p>\n
Ms. Gibson also noted that in order to minimize the trade deficit, The Bahamas would simply have to export more goods to other countries. <\/p>\n
She also acknowledged the devastation that factors like the citrus canker on Abaco\uff92s crops and severe weather systems have had on the level of exports.<\/p>\n
“Unless we find some more things to grow or more industries coming in, that\uff92s what [the deficit] will look like,” Ms. Gibson warned. <\/p>\n
Within the category of mineral fuels, which accounted for 20% of the overall import value or $508 million, oil primarily drove the increase, according to officials who explained that it was not so much a hike in quantity as it was a rise in oil prices.<\/p>\n
“Machinery and transportation and the fuel that would mobilize that transportation are the things that would count for almost half of our import bill as a country,” Ms. Gibson said.<\/p>\n
Manufactured goods like metal, steel, and other construction materials accounted for $400 million or 15% of the total import bill. In the food and live animals category the value was $330 million or 13% of total imports.<\/p>\n
Leona Wilson, director in charge of Economics at the department, explained that The Bahamas may be an importer of goods and services, but the country\uff92s main industry makes it a major exporter.<\/p>\n
“Tourism is a means of exports because we are exporting services,” she said. “[These figures] are different because it is based on merchandise and commodities.” <\/p>\n
The newly released figures also showed that the U.S. remained The Bahamas\uff92 main trading partner, to which 80% of the exports were sent last year. The Bahamas imported 66% of its goods from that market.<\/p>\n
Food accounted for $2.1 million worth of imports from the U.S. market and machinery and mechanical appliances amounted to $1.4 million for 2005. <\/p>\n
In addition, mineral oils and by products amounted to $2.4 million, artworks and precious antiques amounted to $97.9 million and vehicles accounted for $117.2 million in imports.<\/p>\n
According to Ms. Gibson, the country has also done a significant amount of trade with countries in the European Union [United Kingdom, France and Germany], Curacao, Puerto Rico, and Japan.<\/p>\n
The figures also showed that the U.S. still dominates when it comes to the import market for both new and used cars.<\/p>\n
The figures for automobiles from the United States went from $140 million in 2004 to $152 million in 2005, which represented a 9.5% increase.<\/p>\n
By: Kendea Jones, The Bahama Journal<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Bahamas experienced its largest trade deficit between 2001 and 2005 last year, according to the Department of Statistics which announced its 2005 Foreign Trade figures yesterday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10223285771444175_51037792744":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-242973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242973"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242973\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}