El Salvador records $564 million in exports during January 2022

Exports in El Salvador continue registering positive balances and maintaining the favorable trend with which they developed last year 2021. According to figures from the Central Reserve Bank (BCR), this January 2022 exports in El Salvador reached a record $564 million.

Of that total, 77 % was thanks to the sale of industrial products, mainly exports of plastics and paper. Another 20 % was thanks to the maquila industry in El Salvador, while 3 % of total exports corresponded to agricultural products and 0.1 % to miscellaneous manufacturing products.

El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele, reacted as follows: “El Salvador’s GDP grew 10.3% in 2021. And now its exports (main engine of economic growth) grew 13% this January, compared to January 2021. Are we looking at another double-digit GDP growth this year? By the way, El Salvador never had a double-digit GDP growth before 2021,” he wrote in his social networks.

In addition, the BCR points out that, of the total exports reported during this first month of the year, $274.1 million were destined to Central America, representing 48.6% of all national exports in January 2022, making the Central American region the main destination for Salvadoran products.

As for imports, El Salvador registered a total of $1,389.6 million this just ended January 2022, equivalent to an increase of up to 31.6 % with respect to the same period last year 2021.

The BCR had already published data reflecting the positive trend in Salvadoran exports. Last January 21, they announced that the country registered a total of $6,628.8 million in exports of goods produced in the country in 2021, which represents a growth of 31.8 %, that is, $1,600.4 million more than in 2020. With respect to 2019, it represents 12.3 %.

This positive trend in exports from El Salvador has also been highlighted internationally. On January 5, Forbes magazine highlighted that El Salvador leads exports in Central America, using data from the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, which reported a growth of 48.1% in the first half of 2021 in El Salvador.