Total merchandise trade for the first seven months of 1999 grew by 6.7 percent to $36.552 billion from $34.252 billion last year. Payments for imports increased by less than 1.0 percent to $17.899 billion from $17.845 billion a year ago. Revenues from exports posted a 13.7 percent increase to $18.654 billion this year from $16.407 billion in 1998. There was a positive balance of trade in goods (BOT-G) of $755 million.

For July 1999, total trade reached $5.642 billion, increasing by 13.6 percent over $4.967 billion last year. Aggregate receipts from exports amounted to $2.851 billion, up by 14.0 percent from $2.501 billion a year earlier while import bills reached $2.791 billi

Total merchandise trade for the period January to August 1999 went up by 7.6 percent to $42.425 billion from $39.412 billion a year ago. Payment for imported merchandise inched up by 1.0 percent to $20.560 billion from $20.353 billion last year while receipts from export of goods grew by 14.7 percent to $21.865 billion from $19.059 billion a year earlier. (See Fig. 1A)Compared to the same period in 1998, the balance of trade in goods (BOT-G) was a surplus of $1.305 billion posting a 200.9 percent reversal from the previous deficit of $1.294 billion.

Total external trade in goods for January to November 2000 amounted to $63.732 billion which was 5.9 percent higher than $60.182 billion in 1999. Merchandise exports valued at $34.582 billion rose by 7.8 percent from $32.093 billion in 1999 while total imports went up by 3.8 percent to $29.150 billion from the year-ago mark of $28.089 billion. Balance of trade in goods (BOT-G) for the period stood at a surplus of $5.432 billion.