São Paulo – The Brazilian plastic processing industry posted a 38% increase in its trade deficit last year compared with 2010, according to figures disclosed by the Brazilian Plastics Industry Association (Abiplast). The deficit went from US$ 1.35 billion in 2010 to US$ 1.87 billion in 2011.
The reason was that exports grew by only 2.63%, from US$ 1.47 billion to US$ 1.51 billion, and imports grew by 20%, from US$ 2.83 billion from US$ 3.38 billion. In January this year, there was a US$ 160 million deficit, as a result of US$ 283 million in imports and US$ 123 million in exports.
“These are effects of the so-called ‘Brazil Cost,’ coupled with the consequences of over-appreciation of the Brazilian Real, of the benchmark interest rate (Selic) which remains high, and the growing harassment of exporters who are losing space in the troubled European economy,” said the Abiplast president, José Ricardo Roriz Coelho, in a statement issued by the organization.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
