São Paulo – Brazil’s had the second best performance in foreign trade for a January ever, according to data made public this Wednesday (1) by the Ministry of Industry, Foreign Trade and Services (MDIC).
The country had a trade surplus of USD 2.75 billion last month, up 198% over the same month of 2016. The surplus trails only the one registered in January 2006, which was USD 2.83 billion. According to the MDIC, the main reason behind the recovery was the price of commodities.
Exports totaled USD 14.9 billion in January and increased 20.6% over the same month of last year by the daily average. In turn, imports totaled USD 12.18 billion, up 7.3% over January 2016, also by the daily average.
The highest increase in exports was registered by basic goods, with sales going up 30% driven up precisely by higher prices. Among the items with the best performances were soy beans, with revenues going up 124.7%, iron ore, up 124.5%, and crude oil, with an increase in sales of 97.7%.
But exports of semi-finished goods also increased 27.5%, especially due to raw sugar, iron and steel semi-finished products and sawn timber. Finished products went up 7.4% due to higher sales of fuel oils, fresh orange juice and cargo vehicles.
The increase in imports in January were driven mainly by foodstuffs and beverages, more specifically maize, barley and wheat, plus industrial raw materials such as copper sulfide, calcium phosphate and non-carded cotton.
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
