São Paulo – The Brazilian government has revised the country’s export target for this year upward. The Brazilian minister of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade, Fernando Pimentel, announced this Monday (2nd) in São Paulo that the new target is US$ 245 billion. In the beginning of the current year, the official forecast was of US$ 228 billion in foreign sales. If confirmed, the figure will represent a 21% increase over 2010.
"We have reset [the target] because of the performance [of Brazilian foreign trade] thus far and the performance of the world economy," said Pimentel at a press conference held at the Bank of Brazil headquarters, in São Paulo. "And that is a relatively conservative target," he added, making it clear that the figure may even be higher.
In April, Brazilian foreign trade recorded several monthly records. The flow of trade, i.e. the sum of exports and imports, reached US$ 38.5 billion, higher than the previous record of US$ 37.6 billion, set in July 2008. The daily average flow of trade was another all-time, at US$ 1.061 billion in exports and US$ 965.2 million in imports.
The executive secretary at the ministry, Alessandro Teixeira, announced that exports have grown more than imports. Daily average exports rose by 40.1% in April compared with the same month of 2010. Imports, on the other hand, grew by 39.8% in the daily average.
The trade surplus reached US$ 1.863 billion in April and US$ 5 billion in the first four months of 2011, as a result of US$ 71.4 billion in exports and US$ 66.4 billion in imports. "This goes to show that the [trade balance] surplus forecast made in the beginning of the year will be surpassed," said Teixeira.
The Foreign Trade secretary, Tatiana Lacerda Prazeres, stated that the surplus grew by 132% in the first four months of the year compared with the same period of 2010."This year is being a very intense one for Brazilian foreign trade. The figures show very significant signs of exuberance," she said.
She highlighted exports of basic goods in April, which increased by 54.8% in the daily average, compared with the same month of last year. There was also an increase in shipments of semi-manufactured goods (42%) and industrialized items (20%).
Foreign sales, according to the ministry, have grown in both figures and volume, although in most cases the rising prices on the international market have caused revenues to increase more than the volumes shipped. There has been an increase in exports to all target markets, the highlihts being China and Africa.
Arabs
The ministry highlighted the performance of sales to Arab countries affected by political crises. Sales to Egypt grew by 135.7% in April compared with the same month of 2010. Exports to Tunisia increased by 408% using the same basis of comparison. Sales to Libya, however, declined by 87.7%.
Teixeira claimed that political instability aside, the Middle East is a region whose economy grows significantly. "The United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Algeria and Egypt, for instance, are countries that are growing, their economies are developing, and their demand is on the rise," he said. "It is only natural that exports to the region should have increased, in particular to countries such as Egypt," he added, underscoring that Egypt is a large regional market.
Year-to-date, there was growth in exports to all target regions, the highlights once again being China and Africa.
Politics
Pimentel claimed that with regard to quantity, Brazilian exports are faring well, the problem lies in the quality. Not of the products themselves, but of the added value of foreign sales. "Our challenge lies in exporting more industrialised goods without relinquishing [our] position in commodities exports," he said.
To that end, he stated that the Brazilian government should announce a new industrial policy this month, which should be another "competitiveness development policy." According to the minister, it should include a set of fiscal, tax-related, financial and export-fostering measures aimed at making the Brazilian industry more competitive on the international market.
Both in April and year-to-date, imports increased across all categories (capital goods, raw materials and intermediate goods, consumer goods, fuels and lubricants), from virtually all source regions.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum