Registered a 26.3% increase to US$1.15 billion between January-September 2021

Jamaica’s exporting earnings are on the uptick, registering modest growth during the first nine months of 2021.

During the period under review, the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN) has reported that Jamaica generated export earnings of US$1.15 billion, representing a 26.3 per cent increase over the US$910.7 million recorded for the corresponding period in 2020.

STATIN Director General Carol Coy, who disclosed the numbers, reported that the increase was mainly driven by higher exports of ‘Minerals, Fuels’, which climbed by 96.8 per cent.

Speaking Monday (January 17) at STATIN’s digital quarterly media briefing, Coy said earnings from domestic exports increased by 18.4 per cent to US$1.03 billion and accounted for 89.6 per cent of total outflows.

She told her audience of mostly local journalists that, “exports from the manufacture industry increased by 32.1 per cent due mainly to higher [outflows] of ‘Refined Petroleum Products’ and ‘Food, Beverages and Tobacco'”.

The director general explained that earnings from ‘Mining and Quarrying’ were 6.2 per cent above the corresponding nine-month period in 2020, due to higher exports of alumina. Additionally, agricultural exports rose by 7.5 per cent, largely resulting from higher outflows of coffee and yams.

According to the STATIN director general, Jamaica’s imports expenditure between January and September 2021 climbed to US$4.25 billion. She noted that this is a 23.3 per cent increase over the US$3.4 billion spent for the corresponding period in 2020.

Coy said this was largely attributable to higher imports of ‘Consumer Goods’, totalling 9.5 per cent; ‘Raw Materials/Intermediate Goods’, up 22.2 per cent; and ‘Fuels and Lubricants’, up 62.2 per cent.

“It should be noted that spending on exports has not yet returned to the pre-coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic levels. In the corresponding 2019 period, imports were valued at US$4.85 billion,” the STATIN boss told journalists.