Mexico trade deficit widens in September over oil

MEXICO CITY: Mexico's trade deficit in September swelled to its largest since late 2008 as a big increase in gasoline imports outweighed crude oil exports and a rise in factory exports, official data showed on Tuesday.

The raw trade balance was a deficit of $1.83 billion, the largest since a $2.07 billion deficit in December 2008, while the seasonally adjusted deficit of $1.16 billion was the largest since $1.70 billion in January 2009.

Manufacturing exports saw a 1.5 percent rise from August in seasonally-adjusted terms, reaching $23.15 billion while crude exports slipped 6.7 percent in the month to $4.45 billion.

In seasonally adjusted terms, total non-oil imports rose 1.6 percent in September to $26 billion while total petroleum product imports increased 26 percent to $4.14 billion.

Copyright Reuters, 2011