R.I. 16th in nation for YTD export growth through March

EXPORTS FROM Rhode Island companies plunged 14.1 percent in March from February, and 9.2 percent year over year. In March, foreign sales were $165.8 million compared with $182.6 million a year ago. / COURTESY E-FORECASTING
EXPORTS FROM Rhode Island companies plunged 14.1 percent in March from February, and 9.2 percent year over year. In March, foreign sales were $165.8 million compared with $182.6 million a year ago. / COURTESY E-FORECASTING

PROVIDENCE – Rhode Island ranked 16th for its 2.1 percent increase in export growth for the first three months of the year, according to e-forecasting.com.

Exports from Rhode Island companies plunged 14.1 percent in March from February, and 9.2 percent year over year. In March, foreign sales were $165.8 million compared with $182.6 million a year ago.

Manufactured goods, a major contributor to export-related jobs, accounted for 67 percent of all state exports in March, totaling $110.2 million, adjusted for seasonal variation.

Exports of nonmanufactured goods dropped 29.1 percent in March to $55.6 million from February, and decreased 17.3 percent year over year. In March 2014, exports of nonmanufactured goods totaled $67.2 million. Non-manufactured goods include agricultural goods, mining products and re-exports, which are foreign goods that have entered the state as imports and are exported in substantially the same condition as when imported, e-forecasting.com said.

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The World Trade Organization expects the volume of world merchandise trade to increase only slightly over the next two years, rising from 2.8 percent in 2014 to 3.3 percent in 2015 and 4 percent in 2016.

According to e-forecasting.com, those projections suggest that Rhode Island companies will continue to receive larger export orders from foreign buyers this year and that there will be better export opportunities for local exporters in emerging economies than in industrial countries.

Nationally, exports of goods hit $127 billion in March, 1.2 percent higher than in February, but 6.5 percent less than in March 2014. For the first three months of the year, national exports of goods reached $381 billion, which is 4.8 percent less than the same period in 2014.

E-forecasting.com said the monthly numbers show that American foreign sales declined “in line with a fall in overall worldwide trade amid a European economic stagnation and weakening economic growth in emerging countries.”

Last year, worldwide exports of goods rose 1 percent to $19 trillion. In 2013, exports of goods rose 2 percent. The world’s top three exporters – China, the United States and Germany – accounted for 9 percent of the world’s exports last year.

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