R.I. ranks 35th in nation as exports fall 9% YTD through October

E-FORECASTING.COM said foreign sales from Rhode Island exporting companies grew 8.7 percent in October compared with September, but fell 8.8 percent when comparing October with October 2014. / COURTESY E-FORECASTING
E-FORECASTING.COM said foreign sales from Rhode Island exporting companies grew 8.7 percent in October compared with September, but fell 8.8 percent when comparing October with October 2014. / COURTESY E-FORECASTING

PROVIDENCE – Rhode Island ranked 35th in the nation for an 8.9 percent decline in exports through the first 10 months of 2015 compared with the same period last year, according to e-forecasting.com.

Ranking first for export growth of 32.9 percent for the same year-over-year period was Hawaii, while Wyoming was last, with a 33.4 percent plunge.

E-forecasting.com said foreign sales from Rhode Island exporting companies grew 8.7 percent in October compared with September, but fell 8.8 percent when comparing October with October 2014. Exports totaled $193.1 million in October, $177.6 million in September and $211.8 million in October 2014, e-forecasting.com said.

Among goods that were exported, manufacturing products fell 15.6 percent over the year to $130.6 million, while farming and mining products (a category that includes re-exports, which is foreign merchandise that entered the state as imports and exported in substantially the same condition as when imported) grew 9.5 percent to $62.5 million. Exports of manufactured goods accounted for 68 percent of all state exports in October.

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State export numbers are adjusted for seasonal variation to bring them in line with the national trade numbers – a statistical process that smoothes out monthly fluctuations in the number of days in a month and holidays, e-forecasting.com said.

Nationwide, exports of goods fell over the year in October by 10.4 percent to $123.8 billion, according to e-forecasting.com.

E-forecasting.com said that a recent business survey from the Institute of Supply Management found that supply executives are not optimistic about growing overseas shipments.
“The latest reading also indicates that new export orders in November were falling at the same speed as in October. This is no good news for Rhode Island’s exporting companies, as less incoming export orders imply lower production and less export-related jobs in the future. From the pool of respondents of the largest U.S. corporations who sell their products overseas, only 9 percent reported greater new export orders from October’s levels, 77 percent reported no change in new export orders and 14 percent reported smaller new export orders,” e-forecasting.com said.

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