BOGOTA, March 5 (Reuters) - Colombia registered a $470.5 million trade surplus in 2008, compared with a deficit of $824.3 million a year earlier partly due to bigger energy exports, the DANE national statistics agency said on Thursday.
Colombia, which ships coffee, oil, nickel and coal, saw its foreign export sales rise 25.5 percent last year to $37.6 billion, a DANE statement said.
The country's surpluses with leading trading partners -- the United States, Venezuela and Ecuador -- all widened over the year. Exports to the United States jumped 35.5 percent in 2008, lifted mostly by bigger fuel and oil sales.
The statistics agency did not release data on imports.
However, exports fell 6.7 percent in December from the same month a year earlier as the global economic slowdown lowered commodities prices.
The Andean country's central bank warned last month that sluggish demand for manufactured goods and weaker prices for raw materials were expected to cut export earnings by up to 30 percent this year.
A worsening trade outlook would likely increase the current account balance of payments deficit to between 3.7 percent and 4.3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), the bank said. That would represent a widening compared with an estimated deficit for 2008 of 2.6 percent to 3.0 percent of GDP.
In 2007, Colombia posted economic growth of 7.7 percent -- its quickest rate of expansion in three decades. This year, the economy is expected to grow between 1 percent and 3 percent.
(Reporting by Helen Popper; editing by Gary Crosse)
((helen.popper@thomsonreuters.com; +54-11-4318-0655; Reuters Messaging: helen.popper.reuters.com@reuters.net)) Keywords: COLOMBIA TRADE/ (For help: click 'Contact Us' on your desktop, click here or call 1-800-738-8377 for Reuters Products and 1-888-463-3383 for Thomson products. For client training: training.americas@thomsonreuters.com; +1-646-223-5546) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.
Colombia, which ships coffee, oil, nickel and coal, saw its foreign export sales rise 25.5 percent last year to $37.6 billion, a DANE statement said.
The country's surpluses with leading trading partners -- the United States, Venezuela and Ecuador -- all widened over the year. Exports to the United States jumped 35.5 percent in 2008, lifted mostly by bigger fuel and oil sales.
The statistics agency did not release data on imports.
However, exports fell 6.7 percent in December from the same month a year earlier as the global economic slowdown lowered commodities prices.
The Andean country's central bank warned last month that sluggish demand for manufactured goods and weaker prices for raw materials were expected to cut export earnings by up to 30 percent this year.
A worsening trade outlook would likely increase the current account balance of payments deficit to between 3.7 percent and 4.3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), the bank said. That would represent a widening compared with an estimated deficit for 2008 of 2.6 percent to 3.0 percent of GDP.
In 2007, Colombia posted economic growth of 7.7 percent -- its quickest rate of expansion in three decades. This year, the economy is expected to grow between 1 percent and 3 percent.
(Reporting by Helen Popper; editing by Gary Crosse)
((helen.popper@thomsonreuters.com; +54-11-4318-0655; Reuters Messaging: helen.popper.reuters.com@reuters.net)) Keywords: COLOMBIA TRADE/ (For help: click 'Contact Us' on your desktop, click here or call 1-800-738-8377 for Reuters Products and 1-888-463-3383 for Thomson products. For client training: training.americas@thomsonreuters.com; +1-646-223-5546) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.