Brasília – The Brazilian trade balance ran a US$ 522 million surplus in the second week of April. The sum is the result of US$ 4.672 billion in exports and US$ 4.15 billion in imports. Year-to-date, the trade balance is running a US$ 6 billion deficit. The information has been released this Monday (14th) by the Brazilian Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade.
In the second week of April, exports averaged at US$ 934.4 million per day, down 3.3% from the average in the first week, but up 1.1% from the same period in 2013.
The decline in exports during the week was a result of lower sales across three product categories: semi-manufactured goods (-11.4%), basic goods (-3.2%) and manufactured goods (-2.6%). Sales went down for raw and refined sugar, leathers and hides, gold, soybean, oil, pork, maize, fuels and vehicle engines.
Year-on-year, sales of non-industrialized goods were up 7.8%. Exports increased for crude oil, copper ore, pork, coffee, soy and maize. Manufactured and semi-manufactured goods sales were down 7.7% and 3.9%, respectively, driven by sales of automobiles, cargo vehicles, auto parts, soy oil and raw sugar.
Imports averaged at US$ 942.6 million per day, up 2.2% from March 2014 and down 4.1% from the same period in 2013. Month-on-month, imports increased for fuels and lubricants, steel products, fertilizers, optics and precision instruments and organic and inorganic chemicals. Year-on-year, imports declined for fertilizers, autos and auto parts, fuels and lubricants, and pharmaceuticals.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
