Brasília – The Brazilian trade balance showed a R$ 646 million surplus in the second week of September. The surplus resulted from US$ 5.62 billion in exports and US$ 4.974 billion in imports, according to figures issued this Monday (17th) by the Brazilian Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade.
Daily exports averaged at US$ 1.124 billion, up 1.2% from the preceding week. Imports averaged at US$ 994.8 million a day, up 16.4% from the first week of September.
In the two weeks of September, daily average exports stood at US$ 1.118 billion. The figure is up slightly from the same period of 2011, at 0.9%. The increase has been ascribed to greater exports of manufactured goods (+2.8%) and basic goods (+5.1%).
On the other hand, there was a decline in semi-manufactured goods exports (18.4%). The main items whose exports declined were iron and steel, gold in semi-manufactured form, raw sugar, molten iron, and wood pulp.
Imports averaged at US$ 932.3 million a day in the first two weeks of September, down 3.1% from September last year (US$ 962.5 million). According to the ministry, spending on imports dropped mainly for fuels and lubricants (36.23%), aircraft and their parts (9.2%), rubber (8.6%), copper (6.6%) and grain and milling products (6.3%).
Year-to-date, the trade surplus has reached US$ 14.844 billion, as a result of US$ 170.663 billion in exports and US$ 155.819 billion in imports. The figure is 30% down from the same period of last year, during which the trade surplus was US$ 21.3 billion.
*With information from the ANBA Newsroom. Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
