Brasília – Brazil posted a USD 1.5 billion trade surplus in the fourth week of March, its Brazilian Ministry of Industry, Foreign Trade and Services said this Monday (26). Exports amounted to USD 4.5 billion, with imports coming out to USD 3 billion.
Month-to-date through the fourth week of March, the country saw a USD 5.1 billion surplus, the reslt of USD 16.2 billion in exports and USD 11.1 billion in imports. Year-to-date, exports reached USD 50.5 billion, with imports amounting to USD 37.7 billion and leading to a USD 1.8 billion surplus.
Exports averaged USD 916,100 per day during the week, down 6.2% from the average from the first three weeks of March, which had been USD 976.2 million. Average daily exports dropped in all three product categories, with semi-finished goods – especially iron and steel, wood pulp, raw sugar, ferroalloys, leather and hides – sliding 19.5%.
Exports of basic goods, including iron ore, soy bran and beans, maize and copper ore, slid by 8.2%. Finished goods exports dropped by 0.7% on the back of weaker sales of fuel oils, aircraft, aluminum oxides and hydroxides, aircraft engines and turbines, and refined sugar.
Imports averaged USD 615 million per day during the week, down 8.5% from USD 672.5 million during the prior three weeks, with a drop in purchases of fuels and lubricants, pharmaceuticals, beverages, customer electronics, plastic products, aircraft and aircraft parts.
Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
