Agência Brasil*
Brasília – The growth of imports at a higher rate than exports in Brazil is mostly due to purchases of machinery and equipment – which indicates that industries are benefiting from the value of the dollar, currently worth approximately 1.70 Brazilian real, to expand their production capacity. The assessment was made yesterday (1st) by the Foreign Trade secretary at the Ministry of Development, Welber Barral, upon disclosing the balance of trade result for the month of March.
Average daily purchase of capital goods increased 69.7% last month compared with March last year, up from US$ 91.2 million to US$ 154.7 million. During the same period, the daily import average rose from US$ 435.6 million to US$ 580.1 million, growth of 33.2%.
Despite being influenced by automobiles – for which average daily imports grew 76.6% in a 12-month period –, purchases of consumer goods grew at a lower rate than those of machinery. Average daily imports of consumer goods grew 32.4%, from US$ 61.3 million to US$ 81.2 million. The volume represents less than half the growth in purchases of capital goods.
To Barral, the results show that Brazil is taking advantage of the moment, which is favourable to imports, in order to invest in expanding domestic production. "Ever since imports started to rise, purchases of capital goods have been increasing by more than 50% compared with the same month of the previous year," he claimed.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
