Senegal's trade deficit increased by 40.5 billion FCFA (60.750 million euros) at the end of June 2020 compared to the previous month, according to data from the Directorate of Forecasting and Economic Studies (DPEE).
This deficit stood at 134.8 billion CFA francs against 206.1 billion CFA francs in May 2020. "This situation is related to the increase in imports (+66.8 billion) more important compared to that of exports of goods (+18.3 billion), in monthly variation," explains the DPEE.

Exports of goods are estimated at CFAF 156.4 billion during the period under review against CFAF 138.1 billion in May 2020, an increase of 13.2%. This increase is partly explained by the DPEE, by the strengthening of exports of raw gold (+3.7 billion), zircon (+1.4 billion) and, to a lesser extent, cement (+0.8 billion).

For their part, exports of food products posted a slight increase of 0.6 billion, mainly due to higher external sales of fishery products (+8.3 billion), which was nevertheless offset by lower exports of groundnut products (-7.8 billion).

"Year-on-year," the DPEE said, "exports of goods increased by 21.9% (+28.1 billion), reflecting the increase in exports of food products (+7.6 billion) and raw gold (+1.4 billion)."

Concerning foreign sales of food products, the increase is linked, in part, to the increase in exports of groundnut products (+3.6 billion),  preparation of soups, soups and broths  (+2.3 billion) and fresh vegetables (+1.2 billion). This increase was, however, slightly moderated by lower exports of zircon (-1.2 billion).

As for Senegal's imports of goods, DPEE data indicate that they rose from 264.0 billion in May 2020 to 330.8 billion in June 2020, an increase of 25.3%. "This increase is the effect of the increase in the value of imports of petroleum products (+39.6 billion), machinery, appliances and engines (+8.6 billion) and vehicles, transport equipment and automotive  spare parts (+4.2 billion)," says the DPEE.

With regard to the increase in imports of petroleum products, this structure notes that it is attributable to the strengthening of external purchases of crude petroleum oils of $29.8 billion and refined products of $9.8 billion, in monthly variation. Conversely, imports of pharmaceuticals and food products fell by 6.8 billion and 2.6 billion respectively.

Year-on-year, imports of goods increased by 19.7% in relative terms and CFAF 54.7 billion in absolute terms, mainly reflecting the increase in purchases abroad of petroleum products (+30.6 billion), food products (+18.7 billion) and  machinery, appliances and engines  (+6.5 billion).

In the case of petroleum products, the increase was driven in particular by the increase in the value of foreign purchases of crude petroleum oils (+29.8 billion). On the other hand, external purchases of  vehicles, transport equipment and spare parts for cars  and pharmaceutical products fell by CFAF 13.1 billion and CFAF 4.2 billion  respectively over the period.

Regarding the coverage rate of imports by exports, the DPEE estimated it at 47.3%, a decrease of 5 percentage points compared to May 2020.