As the price of sugar and other commodities drop further, Guyana’s and other Caribbean territories’ export recovery is starting to lose momentum and show signs of a slowdown, says a report from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).
According to the first quarter updated edition of the 2018 Trade Trends in Latin America and the Caribbean, released by the IDB last week, the value of Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) exports rose 10.6 percent in the first quarter of 2018 against the same period last year, bolstered by higher demand from its main trading partners, particularly from other countries within the region and the European sUnion.
However, this growth was slower than the 11.9 percent registered at the end of 2017, due mainly to lower or flattening commodities prices for such products as sugar, coffee, iron ore and soybeans. The data, which is included in the six-month update of the IDB publication, shows sugar experiencing a severe 31 percent decline in price so far in 2018. It is followed by coffee – 17 percent, iron ore – 14 percent, and soybean – one percent. This downward trend in export prices was exacerbated by negative shocks that affected specific commodity markets and by the uncertainty following the announcement of potential tariff increases on major global export flows.