R.I. exports continue to fall in April, but outlook positive

ALTHOUGH exports from Rhode Island fell 15.1 percent in April, the outlook for the rest of 2013 remains positive. Orders from abroad, especially in emerging economies, are expected to moderately increase in the second half of the year. / COURTESY E-FORECASTING.COM
ALTHOUGH exports from Rhode Island fell 15.1 percent in April, the outlook for the rest of 2013 remains positive. Orders from abroad, especially in emerging economies, are expected to moderately increase in the second half of the year. / COURTESY E-FORECASTING.COM

PROVIDENCE – Exports from the Ocean State dropped 15.1 percent in April to $155.5 million on a month-to-month, seasonally adjusted basis after falling 5.1 percent in March, according to an international trade statistics report from e-forecasting.com.
Overseas shipments from Rhode Island manufacturers, which accounted for 71 percent of the month’s exports, decreased 3.9 percent from March to April to $109.8 million, seasonally adjusted.
Exports of non-manufactured goods totaled $45.7 million in April, a 33.7 percent drop from the $66.7 million shipped in March. Non-manufactured goods include agricultural goods, mining products and re-exports, which are foreign goods that entered the state as imports and are exported in the same condition.
Year over year in April, total exports from Rhode Island fell 27 percent, or $57.4 million, from April 2012. For the state’s manufactures, exports dropped 23.3 percent, or $33.4 million, from April last year.
Nationally, exports rose by 0.6 percent to $131.1 billion from April 2012 to April 2013. From March to April 2013, national exports rose 1.4 percent.
Year over year, for the first four months of 2013, Rhode Island’s exporters sold 11.5 percent less than they did during the first four months of 2012, as overall exports from the U.S. increased 0.8 percent year over year, according to the report.
Nationally, Rhode Island ranked No. 44 in export growth among the 50 states for the first four months of the year.
The e-forecasting report said that global indicators are pointing toward an upcoming recovery in international trade, good news for state exporters.
“The expectations of gains in worldwide trade translates to good news for Rhode Island’s exporters,” Chief Economist Evangelos Otto Simos said in a report analyzing the export statistics. “In the second half of 2013, orders from abroad, especially from emerging economies, are forecast to moderately increase relative to current levels, which would improve production and generate new export-related jobs in Little Rhody.”

No posts to display