Analysis of the Main Indicators of International Trade from 2012 to 2020: The Case of Mali[Analyse des principaux indicateurs du commerce international entre de 2012 à 2020 : Cas du Mali]

This document aims to analyze the main indicators of international trade in Mali. The data covers the period from 2012 to 2020. The methodological approach used is based on causality techniques. We identified five relevant topics (exports, imports, trade balance, degree of openness, coverage rate), with annual frequency and measurements in FCFA and percentages to understand the evolution of Mali's foreign trade. To build our database, we analyzed documents related to trade, notably from INSTAT, BCEAO, and UNCTAD. We identify variables that cover various aspects of international trade (for example, export and import data). The results reveal that between 2012 and 2020, exports increased overall by 55.94%. During the same period, imports experienced a global increase of 24.33%, and GDP rose by 58.25%. From 2012 to 2019, the coverage rate was below 100, indicating a trade deficit. This could be attributed to the price levels of manufactured goods, transportation costs, and other services, as well as the prices of exports of primary products such as gold, cotton fiber, and livestock, or the low share of manufactured products in total exports. In 2020, the trade balance turned positive, reaching 290,106 million FCFA. This change in the trade balance can be explained by the improvement in the trade balance due to the health crisis of 2019, or COVID-19, which led to a decrease in imports of manufactured goods and an increase in the value of raw material exports.