Brasília – The average volume of exports from Brazil grew 13% in the first seven working days of April, up to last Thursday (9th), when compared to the volume measured in the same period last year.
The products that contributed most to the result were sugar, pulp, soy oil, cast iron, iron ore, oil, chicken and pork, soy chaff and coffee in grain.
Trade is still negative, however, with regard to other manufactured products (ethanol, engines and generators, plastic polymers, vehicles, pumps and compressors, among others), which dropped 4.8% in comparison with the daily average last month. This market sector has been presenting low performance in the world since October 2008, when the global crisis worsened.
With regard to the daily average of imports, the drop was 9% this month when compared to March. Brazil purchased fewer aircraft and parts and less fuel and lubricants, grain and products for grinding, pharmaceutical and ironworks products, as well as vehicles and auto parts. The reduction was even greater, 29.2%, when compared to April last year.
Figures disclosed yesterday (13) by the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade show that exports totalled US$ 4.245 billion in the first two weeks of April, with a daily average of US$ 606.4 million – the highest daily average for sales this year.
In the same period, imports totalled US$ 2.908 billion, with a daily average of US$ 415.4 million – the lowest average of foreign purchases this year.
With this, the gap between exports and imports has been rising gradually, so much so that market analysts heard every Friday for a Central Bank study increased the trade balance surplus (exports minus imports) estimate for 2009.
The figures in the Focus bulletin, disclosed yesterday by the BC, are for a surplus of between US$ 13 billion and US$ 15 billion over the last four weeks.
In case this scenery is maintained, with exports greater than imports, economist Alcides Leite, from Trevisan Business School, believes that "this cannot lessen the negative effects of the international financial crisis on the country’s balance of payments."
*Translated by Mark Ament
