São Paulo – Brazil had a USD 956 million trade surplus last week, the Ministry of Industry, Foreign Trade and Services reported this Monday (13). In the first week of the month, another surplus was recorded.
Last week, exports reached USD 3.84 billion, with imports amounting to USD 2.89 billion. In the first two weeks coupled combined, exports fetched USD 6.1 billion with imports adding up to USD 4.9 billion; the resulting trade surplus was USD 1.1 billion.
Year-to-date through week two of February, Brazil ran a USD 3.8 billion trade surplus, with USD 21 billion in exports and USD 17.1 billion in imports.
Exports averaged at USD 769.4 million a day last week, up 2% from the first week of the month, driven by a 6.4% increase in basic goods exports, especially soybeans, crude oil, soy bran, wheat and coffee beans.
But exports were down 4.4% for semi-finished goods and 2.6% for finished goods, with sales dropping the most for semi-finished iron and steel products, wood pulp, semi-finished gold items, leather and hides, molten cast iron and spiegel iron.
Finished goods exports shrank the most for taps and valves, aluminum oxides and hydroxides, flat-rolled iron and steel, hydrocarbons, halogen-based hydrocarbon products, and ethanol.
Average daily imports slid by 15.5% last week from the week before, to USD 578.2 million a day, driven by fuels and lubricants, customer electronics, organic and inorganic chemicals, and autos and auto parts.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
