* Paraguay’s central bank (BCP) has released a new report which shows that the country recorded a trade surplus of US$977.6m for the period January-September 2018. Total exports were worth US$10.44bn, a 2.7% increase over the same period in 2017, largely due to growth in exports of soya flour (24.8%), soya beans (17.5%), soya oil (10.7%), and insecticides (7.9%). Soya saw a particularly large increase due to the drought which affected production in neighbouring Argentina. Meanwhile beef exports – a key sector for Paraguay – grew 3.4% to US$920.9m over the period. The largest buyer of Paraguayan beef over the period was Russia, with 109,000 tonnes (t), followed by Chile (52.4t) and Vietnam (15.1t). While Chile remains the second largest export market for Paraguayan beef, it has seen a 28.9% decrease compared to last year. The value of imports also increased by 14.4% for the period to US$9.47bn, largely due to growth in gasoil, petrol, tractors and automobile imports, while vehicle parts, mobile phones, and fungicide imports decreased.
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