The BCR revealed last week that, between January and August 2024, merchandise exports fell by 5 per cent.
Exports of Salvadoran goods and services could grow by 2 per cent at the end of 2024, according to a report published by the Executive Secretariat of the Central American Monetary Council (Secmca).
The regional economic report published by the Secretariat reveals that exports in Central America, Panama and the Dominican Republic will increase by 6.4 percent by the end of this year and will slow down by 2025, when they increase by 5.4 percent.
With the exception of Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador, the rest of the countries of the region will experience lower growth in 2025, than expected for this year.
According to the report, the Dominican Republic will increase its exports of goods and services by 8.7 % by 2024, while in 2025 it would be 6.9 per cent.
For its part, Guatemala will go from 6.8 % to 6.1 per cent between 2024 and 2025, and Panama will increase by 6.6 per cent this year and 5.4 per cent at the close of 2025.
Costa Rica and Honduras will increase by 6.4 % and 3.9 per cent in 2024, while by 2025 exports will rise by 6.2 per cent and 4.2 per cent, respectively.
Nicaragua, for its part, could increase exports by 2.9 per cent while next year the projections are around 3 per cent.
The document, citing data from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), predicts Salvadoran exports to increase by 2 per cent this year and 2.3 per cent by 2025. El Salvador is positioned as the country where shipments in the region will grow the least in the next two years.
Trend of imports
Like exports, purchases of goods and services planned for 2024 will increase, according to the report.
The Secmca proposes that regional imports will rise by 5.8 % and then slow to 5.5 percent by 2025.
By 2024, imports from Panama, Nicaragua and Guatemala will grow by 8.9%, 7.8 percent and 6.5 percent, respectively.
In 2025, the trend points to an increase of 5.5 percent for Panama and Nicaragua, and of 6.8 percent in the case of Guatemala.
Costa Rica will continue in the upward trend, which will increase imports by 5.8 % for this year and 5.9 % by 2025, while Honduras will grow 3.7% and 4.5 %, and the Dominican Republic will grow by 3 % and 2.3 %.
El Salvador will also be the country that will grow the least at the import level in 2024, with 1.8% in the projection of the Secmca, and in 2025 an increase of 3 % is expected.
The Central Reserve Bank (BCR) indicates that exports of goods have fallen by 5 per cent as of August this year, from $4.47.6 million in the first eight months of last year to exceed $4.319.4 million in the same period of 2024.
Last August, the El Salvador Exporters Corporation (Coexport) said they expected exports to start rising so that the sector does not close in negative.
In 2023 shipments of goods totaled $6,498.1 million, with a contraction of 8.7 percent. For its part, the export of services rose$5,108.6 millionwhich increased by 18.2 per cent, according to the Secretariat for Central American Economic Integration (Sieca).
This article has been translated after first appearing in Diario El Mundo