they have their best january since 2011

Driven by a remarkable performance of the automotive sector, in January Mexican merchandise exports grew 25.5% to a record amount for the first month of the year of 42,591 million dollars, according to figures released today by the National Institute of Geography and Statistics (Inegi).

This is the largest year-on-year advance for a month of January since 2011, when the indicator had an expansion of 28.6 percent.

The jump of the merchandise exports last month it was behind a growth of 26.9% of non-oil exports —which represent 94% of the total value— and 8.9% of external oil sales.

Within the line of non-oil sales and, in particular, within manufacturers —which participate with 94% of the former— the advance of automotive exports stood out, with an outstanding expansion of 64.9% to 13,604 million dollars.

Las automotive exports They are the most significant component of Mexican manufacturing exports, with a share of more than 36% of their value.

Meanwhile, non-automotive manufacturing exports —which include other relevant sectors such as electronics or the medical instrument industry— rose 13.8% to 23.718 million dollars.

At the same time, agricultural exports grew 9.8% to 1,902 million dollars and extractive exports grew 9.6% to 655 million dollars.

When considering the measurement with seasonally adjusted figures, the total value of Mexican external sales of merchandise also had an outstanding performance, growing 6.1%, which meant its best pace since February 2022, when the increase was 16.6 percent.

Last year, Mexican merchandise exports joined two years of progress by increasing 16.9% to a record amount of 578.193 million dollars, consolidating itself as one of the most dynamic drivers of aggregate demand, along with private consumption.

imports

On the other hand, Mexican merchandise imports grew 16.3% to 46.716 million dollars, which also meant a record level. Inside, the oil imports —which represent 12% of the total— grew 20.6% and non-oil companies did so by 15.7 percent.

This slower rate of progress of imports compared to exports last January was reflected in a 34.3% year-on-year reduction in Mexico’s trade deficit, to 4.125 million dollars.