Brasília – The slowdown in ores and agricultural products exports caused the Brazilian trade surplus to decline in the second week of June. According to the Brazilian Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade, the country’s exports exceeded its imports by US$ 70 million last week, as against US$ 285 million in the preceding week. The surplus resulted from US$ 4.71 billion in exports and US$ 4.64 billion in imports.
After last week’s result, the trade deficit year-to-date is down to US$ 5.039 billion, as against US$ 5.109 billion by June 10th. Year-to-date, Brazil has exported the equivalent of US$ 103.366 billion and imported US$ 108.405 billion. In June, the trade surplus stands at US$ 355 million.
During the same period last week, the trade balance showed a surplus US$ 5.936 billion surplus. The deficit this year has been influenced by the belated accounting for US$ 4.5 billion imports by Petrobras. The operations took place last year but were factored into trade figures covering January to May 2013.
Despite the week-on-week export slowdown, exports in the first two weeks of June this year were up 4.1% from the first two weeks of June 2012 based on daily average figures. The highlights were sales of primary goods, which stood at US$ 538 million on average per working day, up 14.9% from the first half of June last year. The increase was driven by maize grain, soy grain, soy bran and livestock.
Daily average exports of semi-manufactured goods were down 2.7%, however. Sales of industrialized goods were down even further, by 7.3%, driven by declining sales of land levellers, engines and generators.
Imports continued to rise last week, though at a stronger pace than exports. In the first two weeks of June, Brazilian imports amounted to US$ 972.2 million, up 4.8% based on daily average figures. The growth was driven by automobiles and auto parts (+42.7%), pharmaceuticals (+35.3%) and consumer electronics (+22.8%).
Year-to-date, imports have also increased by a higher rate than exports. According to the ministry, imports were up 8.9% year-to-date based on daily averages. Exports were down 2.2%.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
