The Cayman Islands’ Foreign Trade Statistics Report, 2010 Released

"The 2010 calendar year saw an improvement in the country’s balance of trade (exports minus imports) with the rest of the world."

The 2010 calendar year saw an improvement in the country’s balance of trade (exports minus imports) with the rest of the world. This finding is presented in The Cayman Islands’ Foreign Trade Statistics Report, 2010.
The Hon. Premier and Minister for Finance Mr. McKeeva Bush stated he is ⫿pleased to note from the Report that trade deficit declined to CI$677.3 million in 2010 from CI$719.9 million in 2009.??? This performance was largely due to the continuing fall in imports.
Total imports declined by 6.5 percent to reach CI$688.3 million in 2010 from CI$735.9 million in 2009. This reduction is traced largely to the decrease in the following categories: beverages and tobacco (a decrease of 2.4%); manufactured goods classified chiefly by materials (decreased by 7.6%); miscellaneous manufactured articles (41.7%) and commodities and transactions not classified elsewhere (2.9%).
However, there were significant increases in the importation of food and live animals (27.0%); mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials (22.7%); and chemicals and related products (19.2%). Largely influencing the increased fuel and lubricant imports was the rise in the average price of fuel.
An analysis of the imports by broad economic activity revealed that consumer goods, intermediate goods and capital goods all recorded decreases, while the sole increase was recorded in the fuel and lubricants category.

The total amount of duty-free imports reached CI$103.2 million in 2010 compared to CI$131.7 million in 2009, or a decline of 21.7 percent. Duty-free imports comprised 15 percent of total imports in 2010 compared to 17.9 percent in 2009.

Exports fell by 30.8 percent to CI$11.1 million in 2010 compared to CI$16.0 million in 2009. This negative movement was primarily due to the drop in the re-exports of miscellaneous manufactured articles, manufactured goods and food and live animals. Subscribe