May was a good month for Mexican exports, which showed the highest year-over-year growth in any month since last October.

According to data released by the national statistics institute, Inegi, exports brought US $41.8 billion into Mexico in May of this year, 6.7% more than the same month of 2018.

The positive numbers were driven by exports from the automotive sector, which were 16% above May 2018. Those exports to the United States grew even more, at 19.8%, while exports to the rest of the world fell slightly.

However, May capped off a four-month decline in domestic vehicle sales, which hit their lowest number for the period of any year since 2014, and 11.3% lower than in 2018.

The growth in automotive sector exports was enough to make up for a decline of 6.9% in those of petroleum products, which make up about 6% of total exports, compared with May 2018. Non-petroleum exports as a whole rose 7.7%.

Although imports of petroleum products went up 2.4%, a decline in non-petroleum imports put Mexico’s total imports for May at $40.8 billion, allowing the country to maintain a trade surplus of a little over $1 billion.

Source: El Economista (sp), El Universal (sp), El CEO (sp)