Mexico’s foreign trade in the first seven months of 2011 was valued at $396.1 billion, up 20 percent from the same period last year, officials said.

Mexico posted a trade surplus of almost $2.2 billion for the period after registering a trade deficit of $724 million between January-July 2010, the National Statistics and Geography Institute, or Inegi, said in a report on September 9th.

During the year’s first seven months, the value of Mexico’s merchandise exports (not including services) came in at $199.1 billion, or 21 percent more than in the same period of 2010.

Meanwhile, the value of petroleum exports rose 42.5 percent and that of non-petroleum exports climbed 17.5 percent.

According to Inegi, exports of manufactured goods accounted for 79.3 percent of the total value of merchandise exports, while petroleum products represented 16.3 percent, agricultural goods 3.3 percent and non-petroleum extractive products 1.1 percent.

The report said the increase in non-petroleum exports was the result of 15.5 percent growth in exports to the U.S. market and a 23.3 percent rise in exports to the rest of the world.

Imports, meanwhile, were valued at roughly $197 billion between January and July, up 19.1 percent.

That increase stemmed from a 45.1 percent rise in petroleum imports and 16.2 percent growth in non-petroleum imports, the report said.

Imports of intermediate goods – final products used in the production process of other items – made up the lion’s share of Mexico’s imports in the first seven months of 2011, accounting for 75.8 percent of the total.

Imports of capital goods and consumer goods represented 9.8 percent and 14.4 percent of the total, respectively.