Brasília – The exchange flow in March generated a surplus of US$ 5.74 billion. The result is due to the good performance of trade in the month, which resulted in a balance of US$ 6.032 billion, while the financial turnover generated a deficit of US$ 291 million, according to figures disclosed on Wednesday (4) by the Central Bank of Brazil.
The exchange flow in March practically repeated the February result, when the balance was US$ 5.705 billion, but was much lower than the US$ 12.66 billion in March last year. In the accumulated result for the first quarter, the exchange flow reached US$ 18.728 billion, little more than half the US$ 35.592 billion in the same period in 2011.
The Central Bank informed that the exchange position of banks in the free market was US$ 5.794 billion positive last month. The value is much lower than the US$ 10.219 billion that banks had in the till in the previous month, when they bet more on appreciation of the North American currency than on the Brazilian real.
The monetary authority also disclosed that over US$ 8.886 billion entered the country’s international reserves account in March, as a result, mostly, of daily interventions of the Central Bank in the spot market. With this, reserves rose from US$ 356.33 billion to US$ 365.216 billion in late March.
*Translated by Mark Ament
