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DECEMBER KEY FIGURES

	October 2008	November 2008	December 2008
	$m	$m	$m
Food and live animals	823	781	844
Beverages and tobacco	196	187	175
Crude materials, inedible, except fuels	312	287	278
Mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials	3 450	2 571	2 291
Animal and vegetable oils, fats and waxes	53	79	46
Chemicals and related products, nes	2 336	2 068	2 109
Manufactured goods classified chiefly by material	2 674	2 624	2 408
Machinery and transport equipment	8 075	7 833	7 450
Miscellaneous manufactured articles	2 928	2 784	2 572
Commodities and transactions not classified elsewhere in the SITC	956	1 689	1 957
TOTAL	21 803	20 902	20 130

• In original terms, the December 2008 merchandise imports were $20,130m, a decrease of $772m (4%) on the revised November 2008 merchandise imports of $20,902m.

• Preliminary analysis shows that goods imports (debits) on a balance of payments basis decreased by $432m (2%) in seasonally adjusted terms between November and December 2008. Other goods fell $766m (41%) with non monetary gold down $668m (45%). Intermediate and other merchandise goods fell $623m (7%) with fuels and lubricants down $334m (14%) and parts for transport equipment down $102m (12%). Capital goods rose $872m (20%) and Consumption goods rose $85m (2%).