(TAP) - Foreign trade continued its fall for the second consecutive month in May 2021, with exports and imports dropping in volume by 10.4% and 2%, respectively, according to the latest statistics on "foreign trade at constant prices (CVS-CEC), May 2021," released by the National Institute of Statistics (INS).

This drop, which was sharper for export than for import, entailed a considerable drop in the coverage rate by 6.8 points to 72.5% in May.

Prices continued to trend upwards. The prices of exported products increased by 1.1% and those of imported products by 2.1%.

Volume of exports and imports down

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After falling by 4.2% in April, the volume of exports dropped further in May by 10.4%.

This is closely linked to the decrease in the volume of exports of the mechanical and electrical industries sector (-14.1%).

The downward movement also affected the textile, clothing and leather sector (-13.3%), as well as the energy and lubricants sector (-12.2%).

In May, the volume of imports fell by 2%. This slight fall is mainly due to the contraction of the volume of purchases in food products (-29.9%), despite the increase in the volume of imports of capital goods (+9.7%) and the volume of purchases in consumer goods (+5.4%).

Trade excluding energy down

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In May, the volume of trade excluding energy fell for the second consecutive month. This decline was stronger for exports (-9.9%) than for imports (-0.6%).

Excluding energy, prices rose by 0.5% for exports and 2.4% for imports, which led to a fall by 1.8 points in the terms of trade excluding energy for the fourth consecutive month.