According to data from the Ivorian Ministry of Economy and Finance consulted by the Ecofin Agency, the trade balance (excluding exceptional goods) of Côte d'Ivoire recorded a surplus of 724.3 billion FCFA (1.22 billion $) at the end of August 2019. This amount almost doubled (+91.1%) compared to the surplus achieved at the end of August 2018 which stood at 379.048 billion FCFA ($643 million). Ivorian exports posted a value of 4994.480 billion FCFA (8.4 billion $) during this period, achieving an increase of 29.2% compared to the end of August 2018. This increase in exports was mainly favored by the increase in value of sales of mining products (+40.2%) and the growth of "industrial agriculture and export" products with, in particular, the good trend in sales in value of cocoa beans (+15 .8%), rubber (+12.5%) and mass cotton (+28.8%). As for imports, they reached 4167.552 billion FCFA ($7.1 billion), down 30.6%. Imports are mainly composed of food products (+7.0%) and "other consumer goods" (+4.0%), intermediate goods such as fertilizers (+74.9%), category “iron, cast iron, steel and articles of iron” (+7.5%), petroleum products (+10.3%), as well as chemical products (+13.3%). The coverage rate of imports by exports stood at 117.4% at the end of August 2019.