R.I. exports rise 16% in May

RHODE ISLAND SAW its foreign sales rise 15.6 percent in May year over year to a seasonally adjusted $190.4 million. Nationally, exports increased 4.9 percent to $136.7 billion for the month of May. / COURTESY E-FORECASTING.COM
RHODE ISLAND SAW its foreign sales rise 15.6 percent in May year over year to a seasonally adjusted $190.4 million. Nationally, exports increased 4.9 percent to $136.7 billion for the month of May. / COURTESY E-FORECASTING.COM

PROVIDENCE – Exports from Rhode Island rose 15.6 percent in May compared with a year earlier, climbing to $190.4 million from $164.7 million in May 2013, according to an e-forecasting.com report released Monday.

On a month-over-month basis, exports increased 10.8 percent from $171.8 million in April.

Foreign sales of manufactured goods accounted for approximately 69 percent of Rhode Island’s exports in May, totaling $131.3 million. Shipments abroad from Rhode Island manufacturers in May rose 22.9 percent year over year and 11.9 percent compared with April.

The $59.1 million total of nonmanufactured exports in May represented a month-over-month increase of 8.4 percent and a year-over-year improvement of 2.1 percent. Nonmanufactured goods include agricultural goods, mining products and re-exports.

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Rhode Island ranked No. 31 among the 50 states in terms of growth or reduction in exports during the first five months of 2014, e-forecasting.com reported, an improvement over its April ranking at No. 34. Through May, Rhode Island exports dropped 1.2 percent compared with the same period last year.

U.S. exports for May totaled a seasonally adjusted $136.7 billion, an increase of 1.2 percent over the previous month and an increase of 4.9 percent compared with May 2013.

In its July update of the 2014 World Economic Outlook, the International Monetary Fund cut its global growth outlook for this year and next. According to the report, global economic “recovery continues, but it remains a weak recovery, indeed a bit weaker than we forecast in April.”

The IMF’s latest outlook predicts the volume of global trade to grow 4 percent in 2014 and then accelerate to 5.3 percent growth in 2015, compared with an increase of 3.1 percent in 2013 and 2.8 percent in 2012.

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