São Paulo – Brazil has registered a new weekly trade surplus. The Ministry of Industry, Foreign Trade and Services reported this Monday (20) that in the third week of February, exports reached USD 4.274 billion and imports amounted to USD 3.025 billion, resulting in a USD 1.249 billion surplus.
The month-to-date surplus is USD 2.415 billion, with exports at USD 10.383 billion and imports at USD 7.968 billion. Year-to-date through week three of February, the country ran a USD 5.14 billion surplus, as a result of USD 25.294 billion in exports and USD 20.154 billion in imports.
In the third week of the month, exports averaged at USD 854.8 million, up 12% from the preceding week. According to the Ministry, the numbers were driven by a 40.1% increase in basic goods exports, including crude oil, soy, iron ore, beef, and aluminum ore.
The basic goods sales hike made up for a 9.4% drop in semi-finished goods exports, which were fueled by semi-finished gold, semi-finished iron and steel, raw molten and Spiegel iron, leather and hides, and ferroalloys; and for the 8.7% decline in finished goods exports, with sales slumping the most for flexible iron or steel pipes, non-frozen orange juice, plastic polymers, and electric motors and generators.
Imports slid by 2.1% week-on-week to an average of USD 605 million per business day, due to a decline in purchases of fuels and lubricants, organic and inorganic chemicals, synthetic/artificial yarn and fibers, cereals, milling industry products, aircraft, and aircraft parts.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
