By Staff Writer
The July economic outlook for Samoa shows good news for our national economy with remittances going up while visitors arrivals are yet to show any signs of life or earnings.
The Central Bank of Samoa selected income indicates for the month showed remittances rebounding by 5.3 per cent to $54.9 million tala.
However, as the lockdown of international borders continues, there were no visitor arrivals in July 2020, and consequently no visitor earnings.
All in all, gross foreign reserves increased by 0.8 percent (or $5.0 million) to $621.1 million in light of increased external grants and budget support funds. This level of foreign reserves was equivalent to 8.8 months of import cover, slightly up from 8.7 months in the previous month.
EXPORTS
Total export revenues rose further by 33.2 percent (or $3.5 million) to $14.2 million as a result of a 39.0 percent hike in domestically produced exports (particularly taro, fish and crude coconut oil) coupled with a 22.4 percent increase in re-exports. Moreover, total exports were 11.1 percent higher than its level in July 2019, but was below its average increases of 17.9 percent in the past 3 years and 24.0 percent in the past 5 years.
The Pacific region remained as the main destination for exports with a share of 76.7 percent followed by North America, Asia and Europe with shares of 12.1 percent, 11.0 percent and 0.2 percent in that order.
IMPORTS
Total import payments also expanded further by 16.5 percent (or $9.0 million) to $63.3 million. Underpinning this increase was a 7.2 percent hike in non-petroleum private sector imports coupled with the resumption of petroleum imports1 offsetting a $1.0 million drop in government imports for the month. That said, total imports were 14.3 percent lower than its level in July 2019, which was also below its average gain of
1 There were no petroleum imports in June 2020.
4.8 percent in the past 3 years and average drop of 0.8 percent in the past 5 years.
The Pacific and Asian regions remained as the top two sources of imports with shares of 58.1 percent and 32.2 percent of total imports respectively. North America and Europe recorded shares of 9.4 percent and 0.2 percent in that order.
WORLD COMMODITY PRICES
Prices for globally traded commodities were generally down in July 2020 due to weak global demand. On the import side, prices for beef, rice and chicken fell by 7.8 percent, 7.7 percent and 3.8 percent respectively. On the export side, cocoa prices also contracted 5.8 percent.
CRUDE OIL PRICE
At this level, it was 30.4 percent lower when compared to July 2019, which was below its average gain of 15.1 percent in the past 3 years and an average reduction of 4.4 percent in the past 5 years.
