Mexican manufacturing product sales to overseas markets expanded 6.2 percent annually in August and totaled US$27.4 billion, the best showing in four months, boosted by auto industry sales and an improvement in the US economy.
The National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI) explained that automotive exports increased 16.6 percent, the highest figure in 13 months. Sales from this sector to the US accelerated from 6 percent in July to 20 percent in August.
Mexico's total exports totaled US$32.6 billion, reflecting an increase of 3.2 percent of the annual rate. From January to August, total exports increased 1.6 percent over the same period last year, although it reflected the lowest growth for the same period in four years.
INEGI data also showed that imports registered a slow pace, reflecting the weakness of the domestic market: the import growth rate of 0.8 percent per year, to US$32.902 billion, was the smallest increase in the last five months.
The August trade balance showed a deficit of US$234 million, below market expectations of US$1.2 billion. With this amount, the imbalance accumulated during the first eight months was US$3.5 billion, the highest in four years.