Cumulative trade surplus is down 78% compared to 2011

Although exports performed well in February (running a surplus of over $1.7 billion for the first three weeks of the month), there was a foreign trade déficit in January, with the result that the cumulative surplus for the first two months of 2012 up to the third week of February, at $429 million, is 78% less than the cumulative for the same period in 2011, when it was $1.954 billion.

So far this year, exports are up 3%, compared to the same period in 2011, but the problem is that imports have risen 10% during the same period. Thus, cumulative exports for 2012 (up to the third week of February) reached $28.535 billion (compared to $27.513 billion in 2011), while imports reached $28.106 billion (compared to $25.559 billion in 2011).