Media ININ Economy We Trust
Abu Dhabi, January 4, The Arab Monetary Fund announced that the total merchandise trade volume of the Arab countries has increased to $1.848 trillion in 2021, compared to about $1.501 trillion in 2020, a growth of 23.1%.
In the Unified Arab Economic Report, the Fund indicated that the performance of Arab merchandise trade reflected the expectations of international organizations that growth would be modest due to the repercussions of the “Covid-19” pandemic, noting that international efforts to contain the crisis, including the development and distribution of vaccines, had negative effects. Clear on the speed of recovery which was faster than expected.
The report pointed out that the effects of recovery have appeared in particular on the foreign trade sector since the end of 2020, despite the continuing repercussions of other crises, such as the high cost of international shipping and the slowdown in supply chains.
The report indicated that total Arab exports increased to reach $1.038 trillion in 2021, compared to $755.6 billion in 2020, achieving an increase of 37.4%, which affected the weight of total Arab exports out of total global exports to reach about 4.9% in 2021, compared to 4.3% in the previous year.
He pointed out that the performance of total merchandise imports increased by 8.6%, jumping from $746.3 billion in 2020 to $810.4 billion in 2021. However, their percentage in global imports decreased to 3.7% in 2021 compared to 4.2% in 2020.
He stated that with regard to the commodity structure of Arab trade, the category of fuel and minerals still accounts for the largest share in total Arab exports, reaching about 62.7% in 2021, compared to about 55% in 2020 with a decrease in favor of other sectors. Agricultural commodities accounted for 7.1% of total exports.
He added that with regard to imports, the data indicates that manufactures maintained the largest proportion of Arab imports at a rate of 60.2%, while agricultural commodities recorded 20.1% of total Arab imports, and the category of fuel and minerals recorded a rate of 14.4% in 2021.
The report indicated that intra-Arab commodity trade also witnessed an improvement during the year 2021, as a result of the relative easing of restrictions imposed to overcome the pandemic and the rise in oil and commodity prices in global markets, as well as the start of recovery in economic activities and its impact on increasing commodity production levels in Arab countries.
And he indicated that the value of world trade reached $28.5 trillion at the end of 2021, which represents an increase of 25% over 2020, and a 13% increase compared to 2019 before the pandemic, which is an indication of the return to strengthening the contribution of trade to economic growth and development after the efforts made. To contain the pandemic, which included attempts to shorten supply chains and diversify suppliers, which increases the flexibility of the international system to avoid the repercussions of any future crises.
The report stated that with regard to Arab commodity imports from partners during 2021, the geographical structure witnessed only limited changes with trading partners, as the European Union accounted for 22.2%, up from the previous year, which recorded 21.3%, while the rest of the world recorded 19.8%. % compared to 29.7% in 2020, as a result of policies to diversify sources of imports.
According to the report, Asia continued to constitute the highest sources of Arab imports and accounted for the largest share by 33.6%, compared to 30.4% in the previous year, as China accounted for 16.1% and the rest of Asia by 9.6% of total Arab imports, while imports from the United States of America It increased to 10.7% compared to 6.1% in the previous year.
