ARGENTINA – Argentina reported a positive trade balance of 1,369 million dollars in December, accumulating a deficit of 3,820 million dollars in 2018, the National Institute of Statistics and Census (INDEC) said on Tuesday, and a figure higher than expected by analysts.

A survey conducted by Reuters estimated an average trade surplus of 902 million dollars for the Argentine Commercial Exchange (ICA) of the last month of 2018 and a deficit of about 4,000 million dollars during 2018.

The exports of December 2018 totaled 5,282 million dollars, which meant an inter-annual increase of 15.4 percent, and imports totaled 3,913 million dollars, 27.1 percent less than in the same month last year.

In December of 2017 the Argentine trade balance had registered a deficit of 786 million dollars.