Botswana: China imports swell this year

  1. Posted on Monday 25 October 2010 - 15:13
    Mtheto Lungu
    Image of Mtheto Lungu
    Mtheto Lungu, AfricaNews reporter in Lilongwe, Malawi
    Botswana import about $116m worth of goods from China this year, close to the 2009 import value of $16bn. There is a growing presence of Chinese business in local trade. Botswana has thus far this year exported $27m worth of commodities to China, resulting in a country-to-country trade imbalance of $90m in favour of China.
    Botswana
    Data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) indicates the value of Chinese imports for the year up to July - the latest month for which information is available - outweighs annual import values for 2005, 2006 and 2007, according to a report by the Mmedi online.

    While imports from China from 2008 and 2009 were above the P1 billion mark, the value of imports up to July this year is expected to easily exceed these.

    On a quarterly basis, imports from the Oriental titan this year have outstripped those of previous years up to 2005. For July 2010 alone, Chinese exports to Botswana were valued at P189 million, slightly above the values recorded for the twelve months of 2005.

    According to the CSO, major imports from China include textiles, machinery and electrical equipment and a variety of other commodities for the construction, wholesale and retail sectors.

    Botswana, one of southern Africa's stable economies, mainly exports copper to the Asian economic power, although the two countries have previously engaged in dialogue to widen export items, including diamonds.

    The July CSO figures reveal that Chinese imports are ranked third behind South Africa and the United Kingdom, who together contributed approximately 84 percent of the monthly import bill.

    "Botswana's external trade has consistently recorded trade deficits as from October 2008 to May 2010," the CSO said.

    "June 2010 recorded a trade surplus of P206.1 million. This was however not enough to influence trade balance for the second quarter as the trade deficit for the quarter stood at P1.54 billion. July 2010 recorded a trade deficit of P76.3 million. This is much lower compared to the previous deficits, which were above P100 million."

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