(Business in Cameroon) - In 2017, Cameroon’s external trade decreased by 8.2% in volume and 3.8% in value. This is revealed by the national institute for statistics in a report it just published.

According to the institute, despite a continuous reduction of the trade deficit, the balance registered a negative progress of CFA1,089.5 billion in the year under review. Compared to the trade balance in 2016, this has decreased by CFA38.2 billion.

"This decrease is essentially due to the surplus registered in the exchanges of crude oil, due to the decrease in the imports of the product following the technical stop of SONARA in Q1 2017", the institute reveals.

As far as the trade balance of non-oil product is concerned, it has increased by 13% compared to its level in 2016 and the deficit is CFA1,705.5 billion.  This is because exports of these products have decreased by 10% and the imports increased by 2.5%. Finally, the coverage rate of these range of products decreased by 6% to stand at 40%.

Sylvain Andzongo