Senegal’s trade deficit deteriorated by CFAF 52.10 billion (78.150 million euros) in May 2019 compared to April 2019, according to the economic outlook of the Directorate of Forecasting and Studies. (DPEE).
Senegal’s external trade showed a deficit of 177.8 billion FCFA in May 2019 against a deficit of 125.6 billion FCFA at the end of April 2019.
“This situation reflects an increase in exports (plus 33.5 billion FCFA) less than that of imports of goods (plus 97.3 billion FCFA).
Exports of goods are valued by the DPEE at 191.30 billion FCFA against 157.9 billion in April 2019, an increase of 21.2%. This reflects the increase in foreign sales of petroleum products (over $ 9.6 billion), non-monetary gold (over $ 8.1 billion), mineral and chemical fertilizers (over $ 7.3 billion), food products (over 1.3 billion), titanium (over 1.2 billion) and, to a lesser extent, cement (over 0.6 billion).
In contrast, exports of phosphoric acid and zircon fell by $ 3.5 billion and $ 1.0 billion respectively over the period.
For their part, imports of goods from Senegal increased from CFAF 322.2 billion in April 2019 to CFAF 419.5 billion in May 2019, an increase of 30.2%. According to the DPEE, this increase reflects the increase in the value of purchases of petroleum products (more than 49.2 billion), vehicles, transport equipment and car parts (more than 11.0 billion), machinery, equipment and engines. (plus 9.5 billion) and pharmaceuticals (plus 3.5 billion).
Conversely, a decline in food imports is noted, attributable to rice (minus 5.6 billion), edible fruits and vegetables (minus 1.5 billion), animal and vegetable oils and fats (minus 0, 8 billion) and maize (minus 0.2 billion).
The import coverage rate by exports decreased by 3.4 percentage points, from 49.0% in April 2019 to 45.6% in May 2019.
