In January 2021, Senegal’s exports increased by 32.9% compared to the previous month, according to data from the National Agency for Statistics and Demography (ANSD) based in Dakar.
These exports amounted to 242.5 billion FCFA against 182.4 billion FCFA in December 2020, an increase of 60.1 billion FCFA in absolute value. “This increase is mainly due to the increase in shipments of fresh vegetables (8.5 billion FCFA against 4.0 billion FCFA the previous month), mineral and chemical fertilizers (2.9 billion FCFA against 79 million of FCFA in the previous month) and phosphoric acid (+ 18.9%) ”, underlines the ANSD.
Moreover, this structure notes that the absence of exports of unroasted peanuts, in December 2020 against 66.6 billion FCFA in sales during the period under review, reinforced this upward trend.
However, the drop in exports of phosphates (-68.6%) and petroleum products (-12.3%) reduced this growth.
Compared with January 2020, shipments were down 25.8%.
The main products exported by Senegal, during the month of January 2021, are unroasted peanuts (66.6 billion FCFA), non-monetary gold (38.2 billion FCFA), petroleum products (25, 5 billion FCFA), fresh sea fish (16.8 billion FCFA) and phosphoric acid (12.8 billion FCFA).
The main clients of Senegal were China (26.8%), Mali (17.1%), Switzerland (13.8%), India (5.6%) and Côte d’Ivoire ( 4.9%).
As far as they are concerned, imports for the month of January 2021 are estimated at 326 billion FCFA against 370.9 billion FCFA in the previous month, i.e. a drop of 12.1%. This drop is explained by the drop in purchases of edible fruits and vegetables (-82.8%), corn (-82.4%), pharmaceutical products (-49.6%) and petroleum products ( -35.7%).
However, this contraction in imports was attenuated by the increase in imports of rice (20.9 billion FCFA against 9.5 billion FCFA in the previous month) and base metals (+ 66.5%).
Compared with January 2020, imports have decreased by 19.7%.
The main products imported by Senegal during the period under review are finished petroleum products (CFAF 37.4 billion), other machinery and equipment (CFAF 29.6 billion), base metals (25, 7 billion FCFA), crude petroleum oils (23.9 billion FCFA) and rice (20.9 billion FCFA).
The main suppliers to this country during this same period were France (14.1%), China (8.8%), Nigeria (7.3%), Turkey (7.0%) and India (6.4%).
The trade balance stood at -83.5 billion FCFA in January 2021 against -188.5 billion FCFA in December 2020. According to the ANSD, this improvement in the balance is explained by the reduction in the deficit. vis-à-vis the Netherlands (-3.3 billion FCFA against -26.4 billion FCFA in the previous month) and France (-43.4 billion FCFA against -57.1 billion FCFA in previous month) and the surplus vis-à-vis China (+36.3 billion FCFA against -23.9 billion FCFA in the previous period).
“However, underlines the ANSD, the strengthening of the deficit vis-à-vis India (-7.3 billion FCFA against -0.8 billion FCFA in the previous month) widened the deficit of the trade balance” .
