September Rhody exports surge year over year, drop compared with August

By Kimberley Donoghue
PBN Web Editor
Twitter: @kdonog

PROVIDENCE – Rhode Island exports surged 23.9 percent in September from a year earlier.

Exports grew to $192.1 million from $155.1 million, according to data released Wednesday by e-forecasting.com.

When compared with a month earlier, however, September exports slipped 0.4 percent.

Manufactured goods, which accounted for 56 percent of all state exports, advanced 8.2 percent in September from a year earlier and 9.8 percent from August.

Non-manufactured exports - agricultural goods, mining products and re-exports – surged 51.2 percent from a year earlier to $85.3 million. Nevertheless, when compared with August, non-manufactured goods dropped 10.8 percent.

In a ranking of export growth for the first nine months of the year, Rhode Island ranked at No. 13 among the 50 states, with 24.8 percent growth. Louisiana, West Virginia and North Dakota had the largest growth at 45.2 percent, 40.4 percent and 38.4 percent, respectively.

Nationally, exports grew 18.9 percent year over year in September to $127.3 billion.

“The latest monthly and quarterly economic indicators from around the globe confirm that the world economy has slowed down amid the financial crisis in Europe and weakening growth in Asia. As a result, we see a fading trend in the foreign demand for goods made in Rhode Island,” said e-forecasting.com chief economist Evangelos Simos.

The Institute of Supply Management, he said, reported its export orders index was flat in October, following 28 consecutive months of growth in incoming orders from abroad.