Salvadoran companies exported more than $1,506.8 million between January and March 2024.
Exports of services grew by 35.2 per cent in the first quarter of 2024, according to a report by the Central American Integration System (SICA) and the Secretariat for Central American Economic Integration (SIECA).
The document released in October indicates that during this period El Salvador sent $1,506.8 million.
The travel, transport and manufacturing services sectors on physical inputs were the ones that provided the largest mobilization of exports, covering 79.2 per cent of the total services that were sold.
According to SICA and SIECA, these three sectors reported an export growth of 47.2 %, while the telecommunications, computer and information, maintenance and repair sectors, as well as other business services, grew by only 3.2 per cent and covered 20.8 per cent of shipments.
The report reveals that service exports totaled $12.326.1 million at the end of the first quarter of the year, 10.2 percent more than the figure in the same period of 2023.
Regional agencies indicated that Panama and Costa Rica were the main exporters in the region during the first three months of the year, representing 36.2 per cent and 35.2 per cent in the trade balance, respectively.
For their part, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua accounted for only 28.6 per cent of total exports of services.
Imports
With regard to imports, Costa Rica was the main buyer of services at the regional level, covering 27.2 per cent of the more than $6.294 million acquired.
This was followed by Guatemala with 24.1 per cent and Panama with 22.3 per cent. The list is also Honduras, which imported 11.2 per cent of the services it acquired throughout the region, while El Salvador and Nicaragua had the least share of imports, covering 11 per cent and 4.1%, respectively.
In the case of El Salvador, the purchase of services grew by 11.2 percent in the first quarter, adding $693.9 million. The report reveals that travel, transport, insurance and pensions were the main sectors that Salvadorans sought the most.
Statistics point to a trade balance with a surplus in El Salvador, a totally opposite trend when it comes to the goods sector.
The Central Reserve Bank (BCR) noted that from January to March $1,544,9 million in goods were exported, 13.7 percent less than the $1,789.2 million that was sent in the same period.
For its part, the trade balance is inclined in favour of imports that totaled $3.762.1 million during this period, a trade deficit of $2,217.2 million compared to exports.
In addition to the exports of services reflected in the report and those of goods confirmed by the BCR, it is revealed that during that period total exports amounted to $3,051.7 million, 49.3 per cent corresponding to services and the rest were merchandise.
In September, a report released by the Executive Secretariat of the Central American Monetary Council (Secmca) noted that exports of goods and services would grow by 2 percent in 2024 more than those in 2023.
The president of the Corporación de Exportadores de El Salvador (Coexport), Silvia Cuéllar, has projected that exports in total will grow by 1 percent, and could be around $11 billion, probably $1 billion more than in 2023.
This article has been translated after first appearing in Diario El Mundo