From the Newsroom*
São Paulo – Exports from the southeastern Brazilian state of Minas Gerais registered growth of 26.2% in April when compared to the same month last year. The result is double the Brazilian average of 13% in the same comparison. In gross values, sales abroad by companies in the state of Minas reached US$ 1.65 billion.
The main products shipped were iron ore and coffee, as well as iron. In the accumulated result for the year, the state exported US$ 6.2 billion, growth of 11.6% over the same four months in 2007.
Imports from the state of Minas, boosted by the appreciation of the Brazilian real against the dollar, grew 84.3% in April, with most growth in inputs and capital goods, turned to renewal, expansion and competitiveness increase in production. Total purchases abroad reached US$ 823 million. In the year, imports totalled US$ 2.7 billion, growth of 47.1%.
As a result of the advance in imports, the state registered 3.7% reduction in the trade balance surplus in April, a slight reduction if compared to the trade balance reduction in Brazil as a whole, 58.3%. Despite the reduction in the Minas Gerais trade balance surplus, the result for the first four months of 2008 reached US$ 3.5 billion, equivalent to 76.8% of the whole of the Brazilian trade balance surplus for the period.
The figures were disclosed by the Exportaminas Centre and are based on a study by the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade. In the last 12 months, May 2007 to April 2008, records were registered in exports, with a total of US$ 19 billion, in imports, at US$ 7.37 billion, and in bilateral trade, which reached US$ 26.37 billion. This, according to the organisation, shows the phase of foreign trade expansion that is being lived by the state of Minas Gerais.
*Translated by Mark Ament
