Mexico Runs Up $2.73 Billion August Trade Deficit

Mexican registered a wider-than-expected $2.73 billion trade deficit in August as imports of petroleum and other goods outpaced gains in factory exports.

Total exports rose 10.3% from the year-earlier month to $35.78 billion, while imports were 12.2% higher at $38.51 billion, the National Statistics Institute said Wednesday. The deficit was larger than the $1.65 billion median estimate of economists polled by The Wall Street Journal, and brought the accumulated shortfall for the first eight months of the year to $7.16 billion.

A widening gap in petroleum trade accounted for most of the August deficit. Petoleum exports rose 4.1% to $1.84 billion, including $1.57 billion for crude oil as state oil company Petróleos Mexicanos shipped out 1.114 million barrels a day at an average price of $45.41 per barrel. Volume fell from a year before, but the average price was higher.

Imports of natural gas and products such as gasoline and diesel rose 44.5% to $4.03 billion.

Exports of manufactured goods, which account for more than 90% of the total, rose 10.7% with large gains in shipments of processed food, vehicles and auto parts, and electronic equipment.

Consumer goods imports, which have been helped by a recovery in the Mexican peso from January's record lows, rose 12% from August of 2016 to $5.2 billion. Intermediate goods imports, such as components and materials used by manufacturing industries, rose 12.9%.

In the January-August period, an $11.6 billion deficit in oil and petroleum trade was partially offset by a $4.43 billion surplus in nonpetroleum trade.

Write to Anthony Harrup at anthony.harrup@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 27, 2017 09:54 ET (13:54 GMT)