São Paulo – Imported products answer to 21.5% of industrial goods in Brazil, according to study Coefficient of Commercial Opening, disclosed by the National Confederation of Industries (CNI) on Tuesday, November 22, in Brasília. The percentage is record for the last 15 years, according to the institution, and refers to the accumulated result for the four quarters ending in September.
The study takes into consideration how much people consume and inputs for the industrial sector. The percentage rose 1.2% in comparison with 2010, which, according to the CNI, shows that by 2011, the percentage should rise even further. It is also ten percentage points above the lowest volume, recorded in 2003.
The study also shows that the inflow of imported goods grew every year from 2003 to 2010, except for 2009. In 2003, the penetration of imported products from in the Brazilian market was 12.1%. Last year, the total was 20.3%.
According to the executive manager at the Economic Policy Unit at the CNI, Flávio Castelo Branco, the record coefficient of penetration of imports is mainly due to exchange appreciation and retraction of the global economy, which makes the Brazilian market more attractive. “As China has become Brazil’s main trade partner, greater imports are due, partly, to the inflow of Chinese products,” it points out.
In the mining industry, penetration of imported products in the accumulated result for the four quarters up to September was 58.8%. There was, according to the CNI, reduction of 0.4 percentage point in comparison with 2010. This index, according to the CNI economist Marcelo Azevedo, is due to the high volume of imports in the oil and gas industry.
*Translated by Mark Ament
