Colombia’s exports rose 55% in July versus the same month a year earlier, pushed up by the sale of oil and crude products, the government’s statistics agency said on Tuesday.
One of several emerging-market countries helped by a boom in commodity prices, Colombia’s total exports in the month were worth $4.89 billion, according to the DANE statistics agency.
Traditional exports — including coal, oil, coffee and ferronickel — soared nearly 66% to $3.48 billion in July, and volumes went up 25.4% in the month.
The value of exports of crude and oil products in July rose 74.2% from a year earlier to $2.52 billion, it said.
Coal exports from the world’s No. 4 exporter of the material rose 73% in July to $777 million and the volume shot up 28% to 7.1 million tonnes, the DANE said.
Rising commodity prices have helped push up sales for Colombia’s main export commodities of coal, oil and coffee.
Revenues from non-traditional exports such as flowers, food and textiles rose 33.2% to $1.4 billion while their combined volumes gained 10.8 percent, the agency said.
In June, exports jumped 54% to a total of $4.7 billion, driven by oil sales.
Big financial inflows thanks to great security could help Colombia, Latin America’s fifth largest economy, grow as much as 6 percent this year, according to the government.
The DANE is due to release July import and trade balance data on Sept 13.
