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For a larger version of this image, CLICK HERE. / COURTESY E-FORECASTING.COM"/>PROVIDENCE – Rhode Island exports increased 16.3 percent in June when compared to a year earlier, according to seasonally adjusted data from e-forecasting.com.
Exports rose to $164.2 million in June from $141.2 million in June 2010. Nevertheless, when comparing June to a month earlier, exports declined 8.2 percent.
Manufactured goods, accounting for 67 percent of all foreign sales, surged 21.3 percent to $110.1 million year over year. When comparing June to May, however, manufactured goods dropped 6.2 percent.
Nonmanufactured goods exports – agricultural goods, mining products and re-exports – followed the trend, increasing 7.3 percent in June from a year earlier to$54.1 million but decreasing 11 percent from May.
Rhode Island ranked No. 11 in the nation for its export growth during the first six months of the year, although Maine outperformed its New England counterparts, ranking No. 6 in the nation. By contrast, New Hampshire ranked No. 42, Massachusetts, No. 45, Connecticut, No. 46, and Vermont came in dead last, at No. 50.
Nationally, exports increased 12.9 percent to $170.86 billion year over year.
Evangelos Simos, chief economist of e-forecasting.com, said signals from economic and business indicators from around the world point to a slowdown in the pace of recovery in the emerging economies of Asia and Latin America and a stalling of growth in Europe.
“The weakening of economic growth abroad curbs the appetite of foreign consumers for American goods and begins to drag on income from foreign orders of Rhode Island’s exporting companies,” Simos said while noting that one in five local factory jobs is tied to exports.
