R.I. exports decline in June

EXPORTS FROM Rhode Island totaled $172.8 million in June, a decrease of 8.1 percent from June 2014, according to e-forecasting.com.
EXPORTS FROM Rhode Island totaled $172.8 million in June, a decrease of 8.1 percent from June 2014, according to e-forecasting.com.

PROVIDENCE – Rhode Island ranked 14th among the 50 states for a 0.1 percent decline year-over-year in exports for the first six months of the year, according to e-forecasting.com.
Hawaii again ranked first with 25.3 percent export growth. Louisiana ranked last with a 23.6 percent decline, according to e-forecasting.com.
In May, Rhode Island ranked 13th among states for 1.5 percent year-to-date export growth.
In June, exports from Rhode Island totaled $172.8 million, which represented a decrease of 8.1 percent from June 2014. Of that number, manufacturing exports dipped 4.7 percent to $97.3 million and farming and mining exports fell 12.1 percent to $75.5 million. Nationally, the year-over-year decline in exports of goods was 6.4 percent, e-forecasting.com said. Figures are adjusted for seasonality.

Locally, the more recent trend line is even more dramatic, as total exports from the Ocean State in June fell 12.9 percent from May’s total of $198.5 million, even as national exports showed a slight decline of 0.2 percent to $127.6 billion, reflecting declines in capital goods, telecommunication equipment and commercial vehicles.

International shipments of manufactured goods – a major contributor to Rhode Island’s economic development and a job creator – accounted for 56 percent of all state exports in June. E-forecasting.com said that one in every five local factory jobs is tied to exports because of the “high labor content in the chain of production delivering technologically advanced goods to major markets around the world.”
E-forecasting.com said that international trade predictive analytics “clearly point out an undergoing global economic slowdown.” Global exports fell 11.2 percent in the first half of 2015 compared with the same period a year ago, said e-forecasting.com, citing trade figures from the World Trade Organization.
“It seems that a worldwide economic downturn is in progress, which has adverse effects upon the demand for Rhode Island’s foreign sales with an unpleasant impact on local jobs and overall economic development,” e-forecasting.com said in a press release.

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