Brasília – Favored by the balance of trade’s surplus, Brazil’s current account registered the best result in the first six months in ten years. According to data made public this Friday (21) by the Brazilian Central Bank (BC), the index registered a surplus of USD 715 million from January to June against a deficit of USD 8.487 billion in the same period of last year.
In June, the current account registered a surplus of USD 1.33 billion, the best result for the month since 2004. There’s improvement over June of last year, when there’s a deficit of USD 2.489 billion.
According to the Brazilian Central Bank, the balance of trade registered a surplus of USD 34.9 billion in the first six months, favored by the improvement in the price of commodities and by the record crop, which secured an increase in volume exported.
Despite the result until now, BC expects the current account to end the year with a USD 24 billion deficit, accounting for 1.2% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The forecast stands below the deficit that accounted for 1.31% of the GDP registered in 2016.
Foreign direct investments (FDI) continue to grow. In the first six months, the FDI flow to Brazil reached USD 36.3 billion, against USD 33.8 billion in the first six months of last year.
In June, FDI totaled USD 3.99 billion, against USD 3.92 billion in the same month of last year. Even with the growth, the Brazilian Central Bank’s forecast for investments by foreign companies is of USD 75 billion, against USD 78.2 billion in 2016.
Trips
The dollar’s depreciation against the real drove Brazilian spending abroad to go up again in 2017, after having declined last year. Spending by Brazilian tourists abroad in the first six months totaled USD 8.805 billion, up 34.8% over the first six months of last year.
In June, the month that opens the summer in the Northern Hemisphere, Brazilians spent USD 1.51 billion abroad, up 10.1% than the amount spent in June 2016.
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
