R.I. exports up 14% in August

DESPITE A 14.1 PERCENT surge in Rhode Island foreign sales in August compared with a month earlier, the state ranked 46th in export growth among the 50 states during the first eight months of 2013. The August exports total of $174.2 million represented a 14.6 percent decline over August 2012. / COURTESY E-FORECASTING.COM
DESPITE A 14.1 PERCENT surge in Rhode Island foreign sales in August compared with a month earlier, the state ranked 46th in export growth among the 50 states during the first eight months of 2013. The August exports total of $174.2 million represented a 14.6 percent decline over August 2012. / COURTESY E-FORECASTING.COM

PROVIDENCE – Rhode Island exports rose $21.5 million, or 14.1 percent, in August, according to an e-forecasting.com report released Oct. 25.
The month-over-month increase, which followed a 19.7 percent drop in exports between June and July, brought Rhode Island’s total exports for August to a seasonally adjusted $174.2 million.
On a year-over-year basis, August exports represented a 14.6 percent decline.
Foreign sales of manufactured goods accounted for 65 percent of Rhode Island’s exports in August, totaling $113.4 million, or 18.4 percent more than the previous month’s total and 6.7 percent less than the total in August 2012.
The $60.8 million total of non-manufactured exports in August represented a month-over-month increase of 6.9 percent and a year-over-year decline of 26.4 percent. Non-manufactured goods include agricultural goods, mining products and re-exports.
Rhode Island again ranked 46th in export growth among the 50 states during the first eight months of 2013, a decrease of 11.3 percent compared with the first eight months of 2012. Only Maine, North Dakota, New Mexico and West Virginia registered slower export growth between January and August.
Nationally, World Trade Organization statistics from the first eight months of 2013 show that the United States continued to trail China as the world’s second largest exporter, with foreign sales topping $1.1 trillion, a $14 billion or 1.4 percent increase compared with the same period last year.
U.S. exports for August totaled a seasonally adjusted $132.4 billion, a 1.9 percent rise over the same period last year. However, on a monthly basis, exports of goods fell 0.2 percent in August, reflecting declines in capital goods, consumer goods and automotive products.

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