São Paulo – In the second week of May, the Brazilian balance of trade sustained its positive performance from early on in the month, closing the week on a US$ 676 million surplus, the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade reported this Monday (18th). The result drove the month-to-date surplus up to US$ 1.652 billion. Year-to-date, however, there is still a US$ 3.414 billion deficit in place.
In the ten business days so far this month, exports from Brazil reached US$ 8.7 billion, averaging US$ 870 million a day, down 12% from US$ 988.2 million in May 2014. In this comparison, exports declined for basic and finished goods and increased for semi-finished goods.
Basic goods exports were down 16.7% due to lower sales of iron ore, soya bran, beef, poultry, pork and coffee bean. Finished goods exports were down 8.4% from May 2014 driven by aircraft, motors and generators, passenger cars, aluminum oxides and hydroxides, fuel oils and land-leveling machinery.
Semi-finished goods exports were up 4.3% driven by cast iron, semi-finished iron anjd steel, semi-finished gold, ferroalloys and raw sugar.
Imports
Average daily imports also dropped. According to the Ministry, imports reached US$ 7.048 billion in the first two weeks of this month, averaging US$ 704.8 million a day. In May 2014, imports averaged US$ 954.3 million, a sum 26.1% higher than this year’s.
Imports were down 42% for fertilizers, 41.2% for fuels and lubricants, 36.1% for autos and auto parts, 32.1% for steel and iron and 27.8% for optics and precision instruments.
Year-to-date, average daily exports reached US$ 732.2 million, down 15.7% from the comparable period in 2014. Average daily imports reached US$ 769.7 million, down 17.2%.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
