Trade in goods and services between the countries of the region amounted to $4.792 billion during the second quarter of the year, 3% more than in the same period of 2017.

Central America’s total exports reached USD 16,299.7 million in the second quarter of 2018 and increased by 1.7% over the same period last year. 29.4% of exports went to the Central American market, while the remaining 70.6% went to third markets. The Central American Secretariat of Economic Integration reported that intra-regional exports increased 3.4% compared to the second quarter of the previous year.

According to the Central American Trade Monitor, extra regional exports increased 1.1% compared to the second quarter of 2017, representing a slowdown when compared to the evolution of previous months. The lower export dynamism towards third parties is mainly explained by the fall in the value of exports from Guatemala (-1.4%), Honduras (-4.3%) and Nicaragua (-5.8%). The slowdown in exports to the United States (+4.3%), the European Union (-0.2%) and Mexico (1.9%) is a contrast to the strong growth in exports to non-traditional destinations such as China (+133.8%), Puerto Rico (+47.0%) and South Korea (+12.8%).

Exports to the intra-regional trade register a better performance when compared to 2017; however, a gradual slowdown is observed in the value exported during the first semester of 2018. Intra-regional exports are led by medicines (4.6 % of the total); food preparations (3.6 %); plastic packaging (3.6 %); bakery, pastry or biscuit products (3.0 %) and water, including mineral and sparkling water (2.7 %).

Goods imports reached a total value of USD 36,402.6 million during the second quarter of 2018, recording an increase of 7.6% over the same period in 2017. 14.1% of Central America‘s imports comes from the intra-regional market; imports from the Central American market fell by 0.1% year-on-year in the second quarter of 2018, while those from third parties increased by 9.0%.