Imports too had risen on account of rising domestic demand for both consumption and investment goods But since around September 2008, both exports and imports have recorded lower growth rates and in some instances, they have stopped growing.
However, looking at the composition of informal cross border exports, demand for domestically produced exports (mainly agricultural commodities) has remained robust relative to demand for re-exports (mainly manufactured commodities). This provides an opportunity for harnessing benefits from the regional trade if the supply response were to be  2  BIS Review 57/2009  improved to compensate for falling international demand for formal exports.