Senegal’s exports of goods at the end of March 2020 were down by 49.9 billion CFA francs (about $79.840 million) compared with the same period in 2019, the Directorate of Forecasting and Economic Studies (DPEE) announced.
These exports are estimated at 153.4 billion CFA francs against 203.3 billion in March 2019, a drop of 24.5 percent year-on-year.
According to the DPEE, this reflects the contraction in the value of exports of petroleum products (-24.3 billion), non-monetary gold (-15.7 billion), food products (-12.1 billion), phosphoric acid (-10.2 billion) and chemical and mineral fertilizers (-6.1 billion).
On the other hand, titanium and zirconium saw increases of 6.1 billion and 1.5 billion CFA francs respectively.
With regard to the drop in food exports, the DPEE noted that it is due to the 15.4 billion CFA decrease in external sales of groundnut products, mitigated, however, by the increase in exports of fishery products (+2.1 billion) and preparations of soups and broths (+1.0 billion).
Month-on-month, exports of goods recorded a slight increase of 2.5 percent compared with February 2020 when they amounted to 149.6 billion CFA francs.
This situation essentially reflects the increase in the value of phosphoric acid (+5.6 billion) and titanium (+3.2 billion) exports.
On the other hand, the DPEE pointed out that the month of March was characterized by a decline in exports of food products (-9.6 billion), petroleum products (-6.3 billion), cement (-4.1 billion), chemical and mineral fertilizers (-1.8 billion) and non-monetary gold (-1.6 billion).
The contraction in foreign sales of food products was mainly due to a decline in groundnut exports (-12.1 billion).
MS/te/lb/abj/APA