Jordan Times
Sunday, August 8, 2004
Rise in imports eclipses exports' progress
AMMAN (JT) — Just as the country's foreign trade volume rose by 35.7 per cent during the first half of this year compared to the corresponding period of last year, the trade deficit increased by 41.4 per cent reaching JD1,279.9 million compared to JD904.9 million during the first six months of 2003.
According to the Department of Statistics (DoS),
the higher foreign trade volume was brought by a rise in the country's exports
and reexports by 33.1 per cent and an increase in imports by 37.1 per cent
during the January-June period.
The DoS indicated that exports reached JD1,079.7 million, 47.9 per cent higher
than the JD730 million recorded during the corresponding period of 2003.
But, the export momentum was restrained by a 9.7 per cent drop in reexports
which fell to JD227.6 million during the first half of 2004 from JD252.1 million
during the same period of last year.
Despite the 33.1 per cent rise in exports and reexports, calculations point out
that the exports' share of the foreign trade declined from 34.2 per cent in the
January-June period of last year to 33.6 per cent in the same period of this
year.
Furthermore, exports are now covering 50.5 per cent of imports compared to a 52
per cent coverage in the first half of 2003.
The DoS figures showed the garments sector taking the largest tranche of the
exports and accounting for 27.3 per cent or JD294.8 million compared to 26.6 per
cent during the same period of last year. The pharmaceutical and fertilisers
sectors ranked in second and third place at 7.7 per cent and 7.5 per cent
respectively. Vegetables came in fourth place at 6.8 per cent.
The United States accounted for 27.4 per cent or JD296.3 million of the
Kingdom's overall exports followed by Iraq, which received 17.5 per cent or
JD188.9 million of the exports. India came in third, receiving 6.3 per cent of
the exports. The three countries combined accounted for 51.2 per cent of
Jordan's overall exports, the DoS figures showed.
In terms of imports, crude oil was the principal imported commodity, totalling
14 per cent or JD361.4 million of the country's overall imports.
Statistics showed that total imports amounted to JD2,587.2 million, 37.1 per
cent higher than the JD1,887 million registered during the January-June period
of 2003.
Besides oil, imports machinery, equipment and spare-parts accounted for JD198.5
million or 7.7 per cent of total purchases from abroad
Imports from Saudi Arabia were the highest at JD508 million accounting for 19.6
per cent of the total. China ranked second accounting for 8.5 per cent for a
total of JD219.3 million.