Brasília – Brazil posted its weakest trade surplus for a month of April in two years. The country’s exports outweighed imports by US$ 491 million. The result is the second-worst ever for the month, after April 2013, when the country recorded a US$ 989 million trade deficit.
Last month’s surplus was 3% smaller than in April 2014, but higher than March 2015’s US$ 458 million. In January and February, the trade balance swung to deficit.
Exports from Brazil grossed US$ 15.156 billion in April. Average daily exports were down 23.2% from April 2014 and down 1.8% from March 2015, as per data released this Monday (4th) by the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade.
Imports reached US$ 14.665 billion, down 23.7% from April 2014 and 2.4% from March this year based on average daily numbers.
The April surplus has helped bring the year-to-date trade deficit in 2015 down to US$ 5.066 billion. By April of last year, the year-to-date deficit stood at US$ 5.573 billion.
In the first four months this year, exports slowed down faster than imports. The country exported US$ 57.931 billion worth of goods, down 16.4% from the comparable period in 2014 based on average daily figures. Imports reached US$ 62.997 billion, down 15.9%.
Year-to-date exports dropped for all three major product categories. Basic goods exports were down 23.6% compared with January to April 2014, driven by iron ore (-45.1%), soybean (-41%) and beef (-24.2%). International prices of these products are plummeting.
Finished goods exports were down 11.3%, driven by motors and generators (-22.9%), land leveling machinery (-20.8%) and automobiles (-19%). Semi-finished goods exports were down 2.5% year-to-date through April, highlighting raw sugar (-13.8%), leathers and hide s (-12.2%) and cast iron (-10.9%).
The decline in commodities’ prices and the fire at the Santos port, which froze the activities in the biggest maritime terminal in Latin America for around ten days, are the main reasons for the drop in exports in April, according to the director of the Department of Statistics and Support to Exports of the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade, Herlon Brandão.
Conversely, imports declined for fuels and lubricants (-32.3%), consumer goods (-13%), raw materials and intermediate goods (-12.5%) and capital goods (-12.3%).
Brazil’s exports to the major economic blocs have slowed down. Brazil’s imports increased only from Eastern Europe.
Brandão also maintains the estimate that the country will end 2015 with more exports than imports. According to him, the slowdown of domestic economy and the weaker demand for oil will make the country import less, compensating the reduction of exports.
*With information from the ANBA Newsroom. Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
