Caribbean & Central America - November 2011 (ISSN 1741-4458)

The central bank reported that exports of basic manufacturing assembly goods rose 12% year-on-year in the first half of 2011 to reach a value of US$1.70bn.  Sales of textiles, which account for about 87% of manufacturing exports, rose 10.4% to US$1.47bn. The result was driven by strong growth (28%) in exports of electrical parts and transport equipment, mainly thanks to demand from the US car company General Motors, which sources parts from Honduran suppliers.  Honduras still posted an overall trade deficit of US$1.13bn in the first half of 2011. That was down slightly on the US$1.23bn deficit registered in the same period of 2010, thanks to higher prices for commodity goods like coffee, bananas and palm oil. The gradual, managed depreciation of the Lempira by the central bank (via daily auctions) should help Honduran exporters without impinging too much on inflation.  The lempira was trading at HNL19.01/US$ on 26 October.

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