The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas’ trade deficit increased by $82.37m or 10.3 percent year-over-year for the 2022 third quarter as goods imports spiked to over $1bn for the period, it was revealed yesterday.

The Bahamas National Statistical Institute, unveiling its quarterly trade bulletin for the three months to-end September 2022, disclosed that the total value of goods imports hit $1.036bn for the period. This represented an 8.5 percent, or more than $81m, increase against the comparative period in 2021, and a more pronounced near-$226m or 28 percent jump compared to the 2022 second quarter.

No explanation was provided for the import surge, although it was likely aided by the economy’s continued post-COVID reflation and the start of businesses stocking up on inventories ahead of the peak Christmas shopping season. A rise in the value of oil imports to $166.921m in the 2022 third quarter, compared to the second quarter’s $111.023m, was partially responsible for the quarter-over-quarter surge.

The trade, or merchandise, deficit measures by how much The Bahamas’ physical goods imports exceed the value of its exports. Given that this nation imports virtually all it consumes, a significant deficit is no surprise. It reached $882.177m for the three months to end-September 2022 compared to $799.807m during the same period in 2021.

The trade deficit is typically balanced by the surplus generated by The Bahamas’ services exports, the main ones of which are tourism and financial services. However, higher merchandise deficits impose greater strain on The Bahamas’ major foreign currency earners to generate sufficient funds to pay for these imports.

“Data on the merchandise trade for the 2022 third quarter shows that the value of commodities imported into The Bahamas totalled $1.036bn, resulting in an increase of 8 percent when compared with the same period last year,” the Bahamas National Statistical Institute report said.

“The major groups of merchandise, were ‘machinery and transport equipment’, which totalled $197m, ‘food and live animals’ at $184m and ‘mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials’ which totalled $167m. 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 $153m, ‘miscellaneous manufactured articles’ valued at $135m and ‘chemicals’, at $95m (these groups together represented 37 percent of total imports),” the report continued.

“Categories that showed significant increases when compared to the same quarter last year were ‘miscellaneous manufactured articles’,‘ machinery and transport equipment’ and ‘beverages and tobacco’ which increased by 33 percent, 27 percent and 21 percent, respectively.”

On the export side, the Bahamas National Statistical Institute report found: “Data shows that the value of commodities exported (domestic and re-export) from The Bahamas totaled $154m, resulting in an decrease of 1 percent when compared with the same period last year.

“The categories that contributed the largest proportion to the exports were ‘manufactured goods classified chiefly by materials’, which totalled $38m, ‘mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials’ at $37m and ‘miscellaneous manufactured articles’ at $21m representing 63 percent of total exports.”

The report added: “Categories that showed significant increases were ‘machinery and transport equipment’, and ‘manufactured goods classified chiefly by materials’, which increased by 59 percent and 41 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 ‘mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials’, and ‘food and live animals’, which declined by 30 percent and 25 percent, respectively.”